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MAN  AND  THE  UNIVERSE 


Books  by    SIR   OLIVER   LODGE 

Raymond:  or  Life  and  Death 

The  Survival  of  Man 

Man  and  the  Universe 

Reason  and  Belief 

Christopher 

The  War  and  After 

Modern  Problems 

new  york:  george  h.  doran  company 


MAN    AND    THE 
UNIVERSE 


BY 


SIR  OLIVER  LODGE,  LL.D.,  D.Sc,  F.R.S. 

Author  of  "Raymond,"  "The  Survival  of  Man,"  etc. 


NEW  ^qg&r  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1908, 
By  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY! 

All  Rights  Reserved 


Copyright,  1920, 
By  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Formerly  Published  Under  the  Title 
SCIENCE  AND  IMMORTALITY 


PRINTED    IN   THE   UNITED    STATES    OF   AMERICA 


L 


b 


( 

mo 

PREFATORY  NOTE   TO  AMERICAN 

EDITION 

This  book  appeared  originally  under  the  title  " Sci- 
ence and  Immortality,"  but  this  represents  only  a 
portion  of  its  theme,  and  is  inadequate.  Its  true  title, 
by  which  it  is  known  in  England,  is  now  restored  to  it 
— "Man  and  the  Universe."  For  it  is  a  comprehen- 
sive survey  of  many  things  of  high  importance,  and 
constitutes  the  author's  most  important  work  on  any 
religious  theme.  The  other  two  of  his  religious  books 
are  "Reason  and  Belief"  and  "The  Substance  of 
Faith" ;  the  last  being  thrown  into  the  form  of  a  cate- 
chism for  the  use  of  Parents  and  Teachers,  and  both 
books  being  intended  to  help  those  who  find  a  diffi- 
culty in  answering  questions  propounded  by  eager 
children. 

The  present  work  is  more  ambitious,  and  tries  to 
deal  with  the  interaction  of  Science  and  Theology 
generally.  It  begins  with  a  statement  of  the  Conflict 
— a  conflict  which  raged  fiercely  in  the  latter  half  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century — and  it  formulates  the  antag- 
onistic views  uncompromisingly  in  the  first  chapter. 
The  second  chapter  indicates  a  Reconciliation  of  the 
opposing  views;  while  the  third  chapter  justifies  a 
reasonable  scientific  attitude  toward  the  Miraculous 
element  in  religion,  an  element  which  has  often  in- 
volved thoughtful  people  in  needless  difficulties. 

A  section  on  Ecclesiastical  matters  follows,  urging 


2064046 


vi  PREFATORY   NOTE 

greater  freedom,  less  intolerance,  and  a  heartier  spirit 
of  united  effort  among  all  those  who  profess  and  call 
themselves  Christians.  In  particular  it  is  argued  that 
many  good  men  are  kept  out  of  Clerical  Office — at 
least  in  the  Anglican  Church — by  the  tests  and  vows 
which  have  come  down  to  us  from  less  enlightened 
times,  and  which  might  be  so  much  more  effective  and 
acceptable  if  dead  formularies  were  made  simple,  real 
and  living. 

A  section  on  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul  and  the 
Permanence  of  Personality  follows. 

And  then  comes  a  careful  treatment  of  the  relations 
between  Science  and  Christianity.  The  ambitious 
and  difficult  subjects  of  Sin  and  the  Atonement  are 
dealt  with  humbly  and  seriously;  and  the  concluding 
chapters  emphasize  both  the  Material  element  and  the 
Divine  element  in  Christianity.  In  particular  the  au- 
thor would  draw  the  attention  of  all  who  read  the 
book  to  the  concluding  portion  entitled  "Ecce  Deus." 

In  the  hope  that  this  book  may  be  received  in  Amer- 
ica as  it  has  been  received  in  England,  and  may  be 
found  helpful  by  serious  and  thoughtful  people, — 
perturbed  as  many  are  by  the  period  of  scientific  dis- 
covery through  which  they  have  lived, — the  author 
commends  this  as  his  most  solid  contribution  to  a  re- 
formulation and  confirmation  of  religious  belief,  and 
to  that  reinterpretation  of  ancient  formula?  which  in 
every  age  of  progress  is  essential  to  vitality  and  to  the 
reception  of  fresh  developments  of  revealed  truth. 

Oliver  J.  Lodge. 
New  York, 
February,  1920. 


CONTENTS 

SECTION  I 
SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

PAGE 

Chapter  1.  THE      OUTSTANDING      CONTROVERSY 

BETWEEN  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH.       1 

The  Teachings  of  Orthodox  Science  and  of  Orthodox 
Religion  contrasted. 

Chapter  2.  THE        RECONCILIATION        BETWEEN 

SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 23 

The  Doctrines  of  Uniformity,  Immanence,  Agency, 
and  Control,  emphasised 

Chapter  3.  RELIGION,  SCIENCE,  AND  MIRACLE.   .     48 
Meaning  of  Miracle — Arguments  concerning  the  Mi- 
raculous— Law    and    Guidance — Miracle    and 
Science — Miracle  and  Religion — Human  Ex- 
perience. 


SECTION  II 
CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

Chapter  4.  THE     ALLEGED      INDIFFERENCE     OF 

LAYMEN  TO  RELIGION.       ...     77 
A  brief  Essay  on  the  Neglect  of  Church  Attendance. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter  5.  UNION    AND    BREADTH 86 

A  Plea  for  Essential  Unity  amid  Formal  Difference 
in  a  National  Church. 

Chapter  6.  A  REFORMED  CHURCH  AS  AN  ENGINE 

OF  PROGRESS 112 

The     Power     of     a     truly     comprehensive     National 
Church. 

Chapter  7.  SOME     SUGGESTIONS     TOWARDS     RE- 
FORM.       .      . 126 


SECTION  III 
THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

Chapter  8.  Part     I.  THE    TRANSITORY    AND    THE 

PERMANENT 143 

Chapter  9.  Part  II.  THE     PERMANENCE     OF     PER- 
SONALITY     162 


SECTION  IV 
SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

Chapter  10.  SUGGESTIONS  TOWARDS  THE  RE-IN- 
TERPRETATION OF  CHRISTIAN 
DOCTRINE 197 

Treating  of  the  Atonement  and  of  Regeneration,  with 
a  Criticism  of  the  Doctrine  of  Vicarious  Pun- 
ishment. 

Chapter  11.  SIN,  SUFFERING,  AND  WRATH.      .      .  218 

A  Sequel  to  the  preceding. 


CONTENTS 

PAGK 

Chapter  12.  Part     I.  THE  MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN 

.CHRISTIANITY 249 

(1)  Correspondence  of  Spiritual  and  Material;  (2) 
The  Resurrection  of  the  Body;  (3)  The  Res- 
urrection of  Christ. 

Chapter  13.  Part  II.  THE     DIVINE     ELEMENT     IN 

CHRISTIANITY. 272 

(The  Meaning  and  Importance  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Divinity  of  Christy  or  the  Humanity  of  God.) 

(4)  Christianity  and  History;  (5)  Varieties  of  Chris- 
tianity; (6)  Ecce  Deus. 


SECTION  I— SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 


SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

CHAPTER  I 
THE   OUTSTANDING   CONTROVERSY 


IT  is  widely  recognised  at  the  present  day  that  the 
modern  spirit  of  scientific  inquiry  has  in  the  main 
exerted  a  wholesome  influence  upon  Theology,  clear- 
ing it  of  much  encumbrance  of  doubtful  doctrine, 
freeing  it  from  slavery  to  the  literal  accuracy  of  his- 
torical records,  and  reducing  the  region  of  the  mirac- 
ulous or  the  incredible,  with  which  it  used  to  be  almost 
conterminous,  to  a  comparatively  small  area. 

This  influence  is  likely  to  continue  as  true  science 
advances,  but  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the  nature 
of  the  benefit  will  always  be  that  of  a  clearing  and 
unloading  process.  There  must  come  a  time  when 
such  a  process  has  gone  far  enough,  and  when  some 
positive  contribution  may  be  expected.  Whether 
such  a  time  has  now  arrived  or  not  is  clearly  open  to 
question,  but  I  think  it  will  be  admitted  that  ortho- 
dox science  at  present,  though  it  shows  some  sign  of 
abstaining  from  virulent  criticism  of  religious  creeds, 
is  still  a  long  way  from  contributing  in  any  degree 
to  their  support;  nor  are  its  followers  ready  to  admit 
that  they  have  as  yet  gone  too  far,  if  even  far  enough, 
in  the  negative  direction.     No  doubt  both  sides  would 


2  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

allow  that  the  highest  Science  and  the  truest  Theology 
must  ultimately  be  mutually  consistent,  and  harmo- 
nious; but  they  are  far  from  presenting  that  ap- 
pearance at  present.  The  term  "Theology,"  as  or- 
dinarily used,  necessarily  signifies  nothing  ultimate 
or  divine;  it  signifies  only  the  present  state  of  human 
knowledge  on  theological  subjects.  And  similarly 
the  term  "Science,"  if  correspondingly  employed, 
represents  no  fetish  to  be  worshipped  blindly  as  abso- 
lute truth,  but  merely  the  present  state  of  human 
knowledge  on  subjects  within  its  grasp,  together  with 
the  practical  consequences  deducible  from  such  knowl- 
edge in  the  opinion  of  the  average  scientific  man:  it 
usually  connotes  what  may  be  called  orthodox  science, 
— the  orthodox  science  of  the  present  day,  as  set 
forth  by  its  professed  exponents,  and  as  indicated  by 
the  general  atmosphere  or  setting  in  which  figures 
in  every  branch  of  knowledge  are  now  regarded  by 
cultivated  men. 

It  may  be  objected  that  there  is  no  definite  body  of 
doctrine  which  can  be  classed  as  orthodox  science ;  and 
it  is  true  that  there  is  no  formulated  creed ;  but  I  sug- 
gest that  there  is  more  nearly  an  orthodox  science 
than  there  is  an  orthodox  theology.  Professors  of 
theology  difTer  among  themselves  in  a  rather  con- 
spicuous manner;  and  even  in  that  branch  of  it  with 
which  alone  most  Englishmen  are  familiar,  viz.  Chris- 
tian Theology,  there  are  differences  of  opinion  on  ap- 
parently important  issues,  as  is  evidenced  by  the 
existence  of  Sects,  ranging  from  Unitarians  on  the 
one  side,  to  Greek  and  Roman  Catholics  on  the  other. 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY      3 

In  science,  sectarianism  is  less  marked,  controversies 
rage  chiefly  round  matters  of  detail,  and  on  all  im- 
portant issues  its  professors  are  agreed.  This  gen- 
eral consensus  of  opinion  on  the  part  of  experts,  a 
general  consensus  which  the  public  are  willing  enough 
to  acquiesce  in,  and  adopt  as  far  as  they  can  under- 
stand it,  is  what  I  mean  by  the  term  "science  as  now 
understood,"  or,  for  brevity,  "modern  science." 

Similarly,  by  "religious  doctrine"  we  shall  mean 
the  general  consensus  of  theologians  so  far  as  they 
are  in  agreement,  especially  perhaps  the  general  con- 
sensus of  Christian  theologians;  ignoring  as  far 
as  possible  the  presumably  minor  points  on  which 
they  differ,  and  eliminating  everything  manifestly 
below  the  moral  level  of  dogma  generally  acceptable 
at  the  present  day. 

Now  it  must,  I  thinly  be  admitted  that  the  modern 
scientific  atmosphere,  in  spite  of  much  that  is  whole- 
some and  nutritious,  exercises  a  sort  of  blighting  in- 
fluence upon  religious  ardour.  At  any  rate  the  great 
saints  or  seers  have  as  a  rule  not  been  eminent  for 
their  acquaintance  with  exact  scientific  knowledge, 
but  on  the  contrary,  have  felt  a  distrust  and  a  dislike 
of  that  uncompromising  quest  for  cold  hard  truth 
in  which  the  leaders  of  science  are  engaged;  while  on 
the  other  hand,  the  leaders  of  science  have  shown  an 
aloofness  from,  if  not  a  hostility  towards,  the  theoret- 
ical aspects  of  religion.  In  fact,  it  may  be  held  that 
the  general  drift  or  atmosphere  of  modern  science 
is  adverse  to  the  highest  religious  emotion,  because 
unconvinced  of  the  reality  of  many  of  the  occurrences 


4  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

upon  which  such  an  exalted  state  of  feeling*  must  be 
based,  if  it  is  to  be  anything  more  than  a  wave  of 
transient  enthusiasm. 

Nevertheless,  we  must  admit  that  among  men 
of  science,  there  must  be  many  now  living,  who 
accept  fully  the  facts  and  implications  of  science, 
who  accept  also  the  creeds  of  the  Church,  and  who  do 
not  keep  the  two  sets  of  ideas  in  watertight  com- 
partments of  their  minds,  but  do  distinctly  perceive 
a  reconciling  and  fusing  element. 

If  we  proceed  to  ask  what  is  this  reconciling  ele- 
ment, wre  find  that  it  is  neither  science  nor  theology, 
but  that  it  is  either  philosophy  or  poetry.  By  aid 
of  philosophy,  or  by  aid  of  poetry,  a  great  deal  can 
be  accomplished.  Mind  and  matter  may  be  then  no 
longer  two,  but  one;  this  material  universe  may  then 
become  the  living  garment  of  God;  gross  matter  may 
be  regarded  as  a  mere  appearance,  a  mode  of  appre- 
hending an  idealistic  cosmic  reality,  in  which  we  really 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being;  the  whole  of  exist- 
ence can  become  infused  and  suffused  with  immanent 
Deity. 

No  reconciliation  would  then  be  necessary  between 
the  spiritual  and  the  material,  between  the  laws  of 
Nature  and  the  will  of  God,  because  the  two  would 
be  but  aspects  of  one  all-comprehensive  pantheistic 
entity. 

All  this  may  possibly  be  in  some  sort  time,  but  it  is 
not  science  as  now  understood.  It  is  no  more  science 
than  are  the  creeds  of  the  Churches.  It  is  a  guess, 
an  intuition, — an  inspiration  perhaps, — but  it  is  not 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY  5 

a  link  in  a  chain  of  assured  and  reasoned  knowledge ; 
it  can  no  more  be  clearly  formulated  in  words,  or 
clearly  apprehended  in  thought,  than  can  any  of  the 
high  and  lofty  conceptions  of  religion.  It  is,  in  fact, 
far  more  akin  to  religion  than  to  science.  It  is  no 
solution  of  the  knotty  entanglement,  but  a  soaring 
above  it;  it  is  a  reconciliation  in  excelsis. 

Minds  which  can  habitually  rise  to  it  are,  ipso  facto, 
essentially  religious,  and  are  exercising  their  religious 
functions ;  they  have  flown  off  the  dull  earth  of  exact 
knowledge  into  an  atmosphere  of  faith. 

But  if  this  flight  be  possible,  especially  if  it  be  ever 
possible  to  minds  engaged  in  a  daily  round  of  scien- 
tific teaching  and  investigation,  how  can  it  be  said 
that  the  atmosphere  of  modern  science  and  the 
atmosphere  of  religious  faith  are  incompatible? 
Wherein  lies  the  incompatibility? 

My  reply  briefly  is — and  this  is  the  kernel  of  what 
I  have  to  say — that  orthodox  modern  science  shows  us 
a  self-contained  and  self-sufficient  universe,  not  in 
touch  with  anything  beyond  or  above  itself, — the  gen- 
eral trend  and  outline  of  it  known; — nothing  super- 
natural or  miraculous,  no  intervention  of  beings  other 
than  ourselves,  being  conceived  possible. 

While  religion,  on  the  other  hand,  requires  us  con- 
stantly and  consciously  to  be  in  touch, — even  af- 
fectionately in  touch, — with  a  power,  a  mind,  a  being 
or  beings,  entirely  out  of  our  sphere,  entirely  beyond 
our  scientific  ken;  the  universe  contemplated  by 
religion  is  by  no  means  self-contained  or  self-suffi- 
cient, it  is  dependent  for  its  origin  and  maintenance, 


6  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

as  we  are  for  our  daily  bread  and  future  hopes,  upon 
the  power  and  the  goodwill  of  a  being  or  beings  of 
which  science  has  no  knowledge.  Science  does  not  in- 
deed always  or  consistently  deny  the  existence  of  such 
transcendent  beings,  nor  does  it  make  any  effectual 
attempt  to  limit  their  potential  powers,  but  it  defi- 
nitely disbelieves  in  their  exerting  any  actual  influ- 
ence on  the  progress  of  events,  or  in  their  producing 
or  modifying  the  simplest  physical  phenomenon. 

For  instance,  it  is  now  considered  unscientific  to 
pray  for  rain,  and  Professor  Tyndall  went  so  far  as 
to  say: 

"The  principle  [of  the  conservation  of  energy] 
teaches  us  that  the  Italian  wind  gliding  over  the  crest 
of  the  Matterhorn  is  as  firmly  ruled  as  the  earth  in  its 
orbital  revolution  round  the  sun;  and  that  the  fall  of 
its  vapour  into  clouds  is  exactly  as  much  a  matter  of 
necessity  as  the  return  of  the  seasons.  The  disper- 
sion, therefore,  of  the  slightest  mist  by  the  special 
volition  of  the  Eternal,  would  be  as  much  a  miracle 
as  the  rolling  of  the  Rhone  over  the  Grimsel  preci- 
pices, down  the  valley  of  Hasli  to  Meyringen  and 
Brientz.  .  .  . 

"Without  the  disturbance  of  a  natural  law,  quite 
as  serious  as  the  stoppage  of  an  eclipse,  or  the  rolling 
of  the  river  Niagara  up  the  Falls  no  act  of  humilia- 
tion individual  or  national,  could  call  one  shower  from 
heaven,  or  deflect  towards  us  a  single  beam  of  the 
sun."  l 

i  From  Fragments  of  Science,  "  Prayer  and   Natural  Law." 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY      7 

Certain  objections  may  be  made  to  this  statement 
of  Professor  Tyndall's,  even  from  the  strictly  scien- 
tific point  of  view:  the  law  of  the  conservation  of 
energy  is  needlessly  dragged  in  when  it  has  nothing 
really  to  do  with  it.  We  ourselves,  for  instance, 
though  we  have  no  power,  nor  hint  of  any  power,  to 
override  the  conservation  of  energy,  are  yet  readily 
able,  by  a  simple  physical  experiment,  or  by  an  en- 
gineering operation,  to  deflect  a  ray  of  light  or  to 
dissipate  a  mist,  or  divert  a  wind,  or  pump  water 
uphill;  and  further  objections  may  be  made  to  the 
form  of  the  statement  notably  to  the  word  "there- 
fore" as  used  to  connect  propositions  entirely  differ- 
ent in  their  terms.  But  the  meaning  is  quite  plain 
nevertheless.  The  assertion  is  that  any  act,  how- 
ever simple,  if  achieved  by  special  volition  of  the 
Eternal,  would  be  a  miracle;  and  the  implied  dogma 
is  that  the  special  volition  of  the  Eternal  cannot,  or  at 
any  rate  does  not,  accomplish  anything  whatever  in 
the  physical  world.  And  this  dogma,  although  not 
really  a  deduction  from  any  of  the  known  principles 
of  physical  science,  and  possibly  open  to  objection  as  a 
petitio  principii,  may  nevertheless  be  taken  as  a  some- 
what exuberant  statement  of  the  generally  accepted 
inductive  teaching  of  orthodox  science  on  the  subject. 

It  ought,  however,  to  be  admitted  at  once  by  Nat- 
ural Philosophers  that  the  unscientific  character  of 
prayer  for  rain  depends  really  not  upon  its  conflict 
with  any  known  physical  law,  since  it  need  involve 
no  greater  interference  with  the  order  of  nature  than 
is  implied  in  a  request  to  a  gardener  to  water  the  gar- 


8  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

den — it  does  not  really  depend  upon  the  impossibility 
of  causing  rain  to  fall  when  otherwise  it  might  not — 
but  upon  the  disbelief  of  science  in  any  power  who 
can  and  will  attend  and  act.  To  prove  this,  let  us 
bethink  ourselves  that  it  is  not  an  inconceivable  possi- 
bility that  at  some  future  date  mankind  may  acquire 
some  control  over  the  weather,  and  be  able  to  influ- 
ence it;  not  merely  in  an  indirect  manner,  as  at 
present  they  can  affect  climate,  by  felling  forests  or 
flooding  deserts,  but  in  some  more  direct  fashion;  in 
that  case  prayers  for  rain  would  begin  again,  only 
the  petitions  would  be  addressed,  not  to  heaven, 
but  to  the  Meteorological  Office.  We  do  not  at 
present  ask  the  secretary  of  that  government 
department  to  improve  our  seasons,  simply  because 
we  do  not  think  that  he  knows  how ;  if  we  thought  he 
did,  we  should  not  be  debarred  from  approaching  him 
by  a  suspicion  of  his  possible  non-existence,  or  a  fear 
that  our  request  would  not  be  delivered.  Professor 
Tyndall's  dogma  will,  if  pressed,  be  found  to  neces- 
sitate one  of  these  last  alternatives;  although  super- 
ficially it  pretends  to  make  the  somewhat  grotesque 
suggestion  that  the  alteration  requested  is  so  compli- 
cated and  involved,  that  really,  with  the  best  intentions 
in  the  world,  the  Deity  does  not  know  how  to  do  it. 

An  attitude  of  pious  resignation  might  be  taken, 
that  the  central  Office  knew  best  what  it  was  about, 
and  that  petitions  were  only  worrying ;  but  that  would 
be  rather  a  supine  and  fatalistic  attitude  if  we  were  in 
real  distress,  and  certainly,  on  a  higher  level,  it  would 
be  a  very  unfllial  one.     Religious  people  have  been 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY      9 

told,  on  what  they  generally  take  to  be  good  author- 
ity, that  prayer  might  be  a  miraculously  powerful 
engine  for  achievement,  even  in  the  physical  world, 
if  they  would  only  believe  with  sufficient  vigour;  but 
(I  am  not  here  questioning  the  soundness  of  their 
position)  they  have  dramatised  or  spiritualised  away 
the  statement,  and  act  upon  it  no  more.  Influenced 
it  is  to  be  presumed  by  science,  they  have  come  defi- 
nitely to  disbelieve  in  physical  interference  of  any 
kind  whatever  on  the  part  of  another  order  of  beings, 
whether  more  exalted  or  more  depraved  than  our- 
selves, although  such  beings  are  frequently  mentioned 
in  their  sacred  books. 

Whatever  they  might  be  able  to  do  if  they  chose, 
for  all  practical  purposes  such  beings  are  to  the  aver- 
age scientific  man  purely  imaginary,  and  he  feels 
sure  that  we  can  never  have  experiential  knowledge 
of  them  or  their  powers.  In  his  view  the  universe  lies 
before  us  for  investigation,  and,  so  far  as  he  can  see, 
it  is  complete  without  them;  it  is  subject  to  our  own 
partial  control  if  we  are  willing  patiently  to  learn 
how  to  exercise  it,  but  of  any  other  control,  we  would 
say,  there  is  no  perceptible  trace.  Even  in  the  most 
vital  concerns  of  life,  it  is  the  doctor,  not  the  priest, 
who  is  summoned:  a  pestilence  is  no  longer  attributed 
to  Divine  jealousy,  nor  would  the  threshing-floor  of 
Araunah  be  used  to  stay  it. 

The  two  subjects,  moreover,  adopt  very  different 
modes  of  expression.  The  death  of  an  archbishop 
can  be  stated  scientifically  in  terms  not  very  different 
from  those  appropriate  to  the  stoppage  of  a  clock,  or 


10  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

the  extinction  of  a  fire;  but  the  religious  formula  for 
the  same  event  is  that  it  has  pleased  God  in  His  in- 
finite wisdom  to  take  to  Himself  the  soul  of  our  dear 
brother,  etc.  The  very  words  of  such  a  statement  are 
to  modern  science  unmeaning.  (In  saying  this,  I 
trust  to  be  understood  as  not  now  in  the  slightest 
degree  attempting  to  prejudge  the  question,  which 
form  is  the  more  appropriate.) 

Religion  may,  in  fact,  be  called  supernatural  or 
super  scientific,  if  the  term  "natural"  be  limited  to 
that  region  of  which  we  now  believe  that  we  have  any 
direct  scientific  knowledge. 

In  disposition  also  Religion  and  Science  are  oppo- 
site. Science  cultivates  a  vigorous  adult,  intelligent, 
serpent-like  wisdom,  and  active  interference  with  the 
course  of  nature;  religion  fosters  a  meek,  receptive, 
child-hearted  attitude  of  dovelike  resignation  to  the 
Divine  will. 

Take  a  scientific  man  who  is  a  man  of  science,  pure 
and  simple  with  no  element  either  of  a  poet,  or  a 
philosopher,  or  a  saint,  and  place  him  in  the  atmos- 
phere habitual  to  the  churches, — and  he  must  starve. 
He  requires  solid  food,  but  his  sole  provision  is  air. 
He  requires  something  to  touch  and  define  and  know ; 
but  all  his  surroundings  are  ethereal,  indefinable, 
illimitable,  incomprehensible,  beautiful,  and  vague. 
He  dies  of  inanition. 

Take,  again,  a  narrow  religious  man — one  in  whom 
religion  is  the  sole  aptitude — into  the  cold  dry  work- 
ings, the  gropings  and  tunnellings  of  science,  where 
everything  must  be  scrutinised  and  proved,  distinctly 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY  11 

conceived  and  precisely  formulated, — and  he  cannot 
breathe.  He  requires  ample  air  and  space;  whereas 
he  finds  himself  underground,  among  foundations 
and  masonry,  very  solid  and  substantial,  but  com- 
pletely cabined  and  confined.  He  dies  of  asphyxia. 
If  a  man  be  able  to  live  in  both  regions,  to  be  am- 
phibious as  it  were, — able  to  take  short  flights  occa- 
sionally, and  able  to  burrow  underground  occasionally, 
accepting  the  solid  work  of  science  and  believing  its 
truth,  realising  the  aerial  structures  of  religion,  and 
perceiving  their  beauty, — will  such  a  man  be  as  hap- 
pily and  powerfully  at  home  in  the  air  as  if  he  had 
no  earth  adhering  to  his  wings?  Is  the  modern  man 
as  happily  and  as  powerfully  religious  as  he  might 
have  been  with  less  information  about  the  universe? 
Or,  I  would  add  parenthetically,  as  he  will  yet  as- 
suredly become,  with  more? 

II 

Leaving  general  considerations,  and  coming  to  de- 
tails, let  us  look  at  a  few  of  the  simpler  religious 
doctrines,  such  as  are  still,  I  suppose,  popularly  held 
in  this  country. 

The  creed  of  the  ancient  Israelites  was  well,  or  at 
least  strikingly,  summarised  by  Mr.  Huxley  in  one 
of  his  Nineteenth  Century  articles  (March  1886). 
He  there  says:  "The  chief  articles  of  the  theological 
creed  of  the  old  Israelites,  which  are  made  known  to 
us  by  the  direct  evidence  of  the  ancient  records,  .  .  . 
are  as  remarkable  for  that  which  they  contain  as  for 
that  which  is  absent  from  them.     They  reveal  a  firm 


12  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

conviction  that,  when  death  takes  place,  a  something 
termed  a  soul,  or  spirit,  leaves  the  body  and  con- 
tinues to  exist  in  Sheol  for  a  period  of  indefinite 
duration,  even  though  there  is  no  proof  of  any  belief 
in  absolute  immortality;  that  such  spirits  can  return 
to  earth  to  possess  and  inspire  the  living;  that  they 
are  in  appearance  and  in  disposition  likenesses  of  the 
men  to  whom  they  belonged,  but  that,  as  spirits,  they 
have  larger  powers  and  are  freer  from  physical  limit- 
ations ;  that  they  thus  form  one  of  a  number  of  kinds 
of  spiritual  existence  known  as  Elohim,  of  whom 
Jahveh,  the  national  God  of  Israel,  is  one;  that,  con- 
sistently with  this  view,  Jahveh  was  conceived  as  a 
sort  of  spirit,  human  in  aspect  and  in  sense,  and  with 
many  human  passions,  but  with  immensely  greater 
intelligence  and  power  than  any  other  Elohim, 
whether  human  or  divine." 

The  mere  calm  statement  of  such  a  creed  was 
plainly  held  by  Mr.  Huxley  to  be  a  sufficient  refuta- 
tion. 

But  we  need  not  limit  ourselves  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, some  of  whose  alleged  facts  may  admittedly  be 
abandoned  without  detriment,  as  belonging  to  the 
legendary  or  the  obscure;  we  may  be  constrained  by 
science  to  go  further,  and  to  maintain  that  even  what 
some  regard  as  fundamental  Christian  tenets,  such  as 
the  Incarnation  or  non-natural  birth,  and  the  Resur- 
rection or  non-natural  disappearance  of  the  body  from 
the  tomb,  have,  from  the  scientific  point  of  view,  no 
reasonable  likelihood  or  probability  whatever.  It  may 
be,  and  often  has  been,  asserted  that  they  appear  as 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY  18 

childish  fancies,  appropriate  to  the  infancy  of  civilisa- 
tion and  a  prescientific  credulous  age ;  readily  intelligi- 
ble to  the  historian  and  student  of  folk-lore,  but  not 
otherwise  interesting.  The  same  has  been  said  of 
every  variety  of  alleged  miraculous  occurrence,  and 
not  merely  of  such  dogmas  as  the  fall  of  man  from 
an  original  state  of  perfection,  of  the  subsequent  ex- 
tirpation of  the  human  race  down  to  a  single  family, 
and  so  on. 

The  whole  historical  record,  wherever  it  exceeds  the 
commonplace,  every  act  attributed  directly  to  the 
Deity,  whether  it  be  sending  fire  from  heaven,  or 
writing  upon  stone,  or  leadings  by  cloud  and  fire,  or 
conversations,  whether  during  trance  or  otherwise,  is 
incompatible  with  the  teachings  of  modern  science  (let 
it  be  clearly  remembered  how  I  have  defined  the 
phrase  "modern  science"  above)  ;  and  when  consid- 
ered prosaically,  much  of  the  record  is  summarily 
discredited,  even  by  many  theologians  now.  Nor 
is  this  acquiescence  in  negation  confined  to  the 
leaders.  The  general  religious  world  has  agreed  ap- 
parently to  throw  overboard  Jonah  and  the  whale, 
Joshua  and  the  sun,  the  three  Children  and  the  fiery 
furnace;  it  does  not  seem  to  take  anything  in  the 
book  of  Judges  or  the  book  of  Daniel  very  seriously; 
and  though  it  still  clings  pathetically  to  the  book  of 
Genesis,  it  is  willing  to  relegate  to  poetry,  i.e.  to  im- 
agination or  fiction,  such  legends  as  the  creation  of 
the  world,  Adam  and  his  rib,  Eve  and  the  apple, 
Noah  and  his  ark,  language  and  the  tower«of  Babel, 
Elijah  and  the  chariot  of  fire,  and  many  others.    The 


14  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

stock  reconciling  phrase,  applied  to  the  legend  of  the 
six-days'  creation,  or  the  Levitican  mistakes  in  Nat- 
ural History,  after  the  strained  "day-period"  mode 
of  interpretation  had  been  exploded  in  "Essays  and 
Reviews,"  used  to  be,  that  the  Bible  was  never  meant 
to  teach  science ;  wherefore,  whenever  it  touches  upon 
any  branch  of  natural  knowledge,  its  statements  are 
to  be  interpreted  in  a  friendly  spirit,  i.e.  it  is  to  be 
glossed  over,  and  in  fact  disbelieved.  But  a  book 
which  deals  with  so  prodigious  a  subject  as  the  origin 
of  all  things,  and  the  history  of  the  human  race,  can- 
not avoid  a  treatment  of  natural  facts  which  is  really 
a  teaching  of  science,  whether  such  teaching  is  meant 
or  not;  and  indeed  the  whole  idea  involved  in  the 
word  "meant"  is  repugnant  to  the  conceptions  of 
biological  science,  which  claims  to  have  ousted  teleol- 
ogy from  its  arena. 

Moreover,  if  religious  people  go  as  far  as  this, 
where  are  they  to  stop?  What,  then,  do  they  pro- 
pose to  do  with  the  turning  of  water  into  wine,  the 
ejection  of  devils,  the  cursing  of  the  fig-tree,  the 
feeding  of  five  thousand,  the  raising  of  Lazarus? 
Or,  to  go  deeper  still,  what  do  they  make  of  the 
scene  at  the  Baptism,  of  the  Transfiguration,  of  the 
Crucifixion,  the  appearances  after  Death,  the  As- 
cension into  heaven  ?  On  all  these  points  I  venture  to 
suggest  that  neither  religion  nor  science  has  said  its 
last  word. 

But  it  may  be  urged  that  even  these  are  but  details 
compared  with  the  one  transcendent  doctrine  of  the 
existence  of  an  omnipotent  and  omniscient  benevo- 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY  15 

lent  personal  God;  the  fundamental  tenet  of  nearly- 
all  religions.  But  so  far  as  science  has  anything  to 
say  on  this  subject,  and  it  has  not  very  much,  its 
tendency  is  to  throw  mistrust,  not  upon  the  existence 
of  Deity  itself,  but  upon  any  adjectives  applied  to 
the  Deity.  "Infinite"  and  "eternal"  may  pass,  and 
"omnipotent"  and  "omniscient"  may  reluctantly  be 
permitted  to  enter  with  them, — these  expansive  epi- 
thets relieve  the  mind,  without  expressing  more  than 
is  implicitly  contained  in  the  substantive  God.  But 
concerning  "personal"  and  "benevolent"  and  other 
anthropomorphic  adjectives,  science  is  exceedingly 
dubious;  nor  is  omnipotence  itself  very  easily  recon- 
cilable with  the  actual  condition  of  things  as  we  now 
experience  them.  The  present  state  of  the  world  is 
very  far  short  of  perfection.  Why  are  things  still 
imperfect  if  controlled  by  a  benevolent  omnipotence? 
Why,  indeed,  does  evil  or  pain  at  all  exist?  All  very 
ancient  puzzles  these,  but  still  alive;  and  the  solution 
to  them  so  far  attempted  by  science  lies  in  the  word 
Evolution,  a  word  whose  applicability  to  the  work  of 
a  perfect  God  may  readily  be  the  subject  of  contro- 
versy. 

Taught  by  science,  we  learn  that  there  has  been  no 
fall  of  man,  there  has  been  a  rise.  Through  an  ape- 
like ancestry,  back  through  a  tadpole  and  fishlike 
ancestry,  away  to  the  early  beginnings  of  life,  the 
origin  of  man  is  being  traced  by  science.  There  was 
no  specific  creation  of  the  world  such  as  was  con- 
ceived appropriate  to  a  geocentric  conception  of  the 
universe ;  the  world  is  a  condensation  of  primeval  gas, 


16  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

a  congeries  of  stones  and  meteors  fallen  together; 
still  falling  together,  indeed,  in  a  larger  neighboring 
mass  (the  Sun).  By  the  energy  of  that  still  persist- 
ent falling  together,  the  ether  near  us  is  kept  con- 
stantly agitated,  and  to  the  energy  of  this  ethereal 
agitation  all  the  manifold  activity  of  our  planet  is 
due.  The  whole  system  has  evolved  itself  from  mere 
moving  matter  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation, and  there  is  no  certain  sign  of  either  begin- 
ning or  end.  Solar  systems  can  by  collision  or  other- 
wise resolve  themselves  into  nebulae,  and  nebulae  left 
to  themselves  can  condense  into  solar  systems, — 
everywhere  in  the  spaces  around  us  we  see  a  part  of 
the  process  going  on;  the  formation  of  solar  systems 
from  whirling  nebulae  lies  before  our  eyes,  if  not  in 
the  visible  sky  itself,  yet  in  the  magnified  photo- 
graphs taken  of  that  sky.  Even  though  the  whole 
process  of  evolution  is  not  completely  understood  as 
yet,  does  anyone  doubt  that  it  will  become  more  thor- 
oughly understood  in  time?  and  if  they  do  doubt  it, 
would  they  hope  effectively  to  bolster  up  religion  by 
such  a  doubt? 

It  is  difficult  to  resist  yielding  to  the  bent  and  trend 
of  "modern  science,"  as  well  as  to  its  proved  conclu- 
sions. Its  bent  and  trend  may  have  been  wrongly 
estimated  by  its  present  disciples:  a  large  tract  of 
knowledge  may  have  been  omitted  from  its  ken, 
which  when  included  will  revolutionise  some  of  their 
accepted  opinions;  but,  however  this  may  be,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  about  the  tendency  of  orthodox 
science  at  the  present  time.     It  suggests  to  us  that 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY  17 

the  Cosmos  is  self-explanatory,  self-contained,  and 
self -maintaining.  From  everlasting  to  everlasting 
the  material  universe  rolls  on,  composing  worlds  and 
disintegrating  them,  producing  vegetable  beauty  and 
destroying  it,  evolving  intelligent  animal  life,  devel- 
oping that  into  a  self-conscious  human  race,  and  then 
plunging  it  once  more  into  annihilation. 

"Thou  makest  thine  appeal  to  me! 
I  bring  to  life,  I  bring  to  death, 
The  spirit  does  but  mean  the  breath, 
I  know  no  more.     .     .     ." 

Eut  at  this  point  the  theologian  happily  and 
eagerly  interposes,  with  a  crucial  inquiry  of  science 
about  this  same  bringing  to  life.  Granted  that  the 
blaze  of  the  sun  accounts  for  winds  and  waves,  and 
hail,  and  rain,  and  rivers,  and  all  the  myriad  activities 
of  the  earth,  does  it  account  for  life?  Has  it  ac- 
counted for  the  life  of  the  lowest  animal,  the  tiniest 
plant,  the  simplest  cell,  hardly  visible  but  yet  self- 
moving,  in  the  field  of  a  microscope? 

And  science,  in  chagrin,  has  to  confess  that  hitherto 
in  this  direction  it  has  failed.  It  has  not  yet  witnessed 
the  origin  of  the  smallest  trace  of  life  from  dead  mat- 
ter: all  life,  so  far  as  has  been  watched,  proceeds 
from  antecedent  life.  Given  the  life  of  a  single  cell, 
science  would  esteem  itself  competent  ultimately  to 
trace  its  evolution  into  all  the  myriad  existences  of 
plant  and  animal  and  man;  but  the  origin  of  proto- 
plasmic activity  itself  as  yet  eludes  it.  But  will  the 
Theologian  triumph  in  the  admission?  will  he  therein 
detect  at  last  the  dam  which  shall  stem  the  torrent  of 


18  SCIENCE  AND   FAITH 

scepticism?  will  he  base  an  argument  for  the  direct 
action  of  the  Deity  in  mundane  affairs  on  that  fail- 
ure, and  entrench  himself  behind  that  present  incom- 
petence of  labouring  men?  If  so,  he  takes  his  stand 
on  what  may  prove  a  yielding  foundation.  The  pres- 
ent powerlessness  of  science  to  explain  or  originate 
life  is  a  convenient  weapon  wherewith  to  fell  a 
pseudo-scientific  antagonist  who  is  dogmatising  too 
loudly  out  of  bounds;  but  it  is  not  perfectly  secure 
as  a  permanent  support.  In  an  early  stage  of  civili- 
sation it  may  have  been  supposed  that  flame  only  pro- 
ceeded from  antecedent  flame,  but  the  tinder-box  and 
the  lucifer-match  were  invented  nevertheless.  Theo- 
logians have  probably  learnt  by  this  time  that  their 
central  tenets  should  not  be  founded,  even  partially, 
upon  nescience,  or  upon  negations  of  any  kind,  lest 
the  placid  progress  of  positive  knowledge  should 
once  more  undermine  their  position,  and  another  dis- 
covery have  to  be  scouted  with  alarmed  and  violent 
anathemas. 

Any  year,  or  any  century,  the  physical  aspect  of 
the  nature  of  life  may  become  more  intelligible,  and 
may  perhaps  resolve  itself  into  an  action  of  already 
known  forces  on  the  very  complex  molecule  of 
protoplasm.  Already  in  Germany  have  inorganic 
and  artificial  substances  been  found  to  crawl  about  on 
glass  slides  under  the  action  of  surface-tension  or 
capillarity,  with  an  appearance  which  is  said  to  have 
deceived  even  a  biologist  into  hastily  pronouncing 
them  living  amoebae.  Life  in  its  ultimate  element  and 
on  its  material  side  is  such  a  simple  thing,  it  is  but  a 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY      !9 

slight  extension  of  known  chemical  and  physical 
forces ;  the  cell  must  be  able  to  respond  to  stimuli,  to 
assimilate  outside  materials,  and  to  subdivide.  I  ap- 
prehend that  there  is  not  a  biologist  but  believes  (per- 
haps quite  erroneously)  that  sooner  or  later  the  dis- 
covery will  be  made,  and  that  a  cell  having  all  the 
essential  functions  of  life  will  be  constructed  out  of 
inorganic  material.  Seventy  years  ago  organic 
chemistry  was  the  chemistry  of  vital  products,  of 
compounds  that  could  not  be  made  artificially  by  man. 
Now  there  is  no  such  chemistry ;  the  name  persists,  but 
its  meaning  has  changed. 

It  may  be  conceivably  argued  that  after  all  we  are 
alive,  and  that  if  we  ever  learn  how  to  make  animals 
or  plants,  they  as  our  creation  will  originate  from 
pre-existent  life;  just  as  when  we  make  new  species 
by  artificial  selection  we  exercise  a  control  over  the 
forces  of  nature  which  may  have  some  remote  likeness 
to  Divine  control.  And  this  may  possibly  be  a  theme 
capable  of  enlargement. 

But  meanwhile  what  do  we  mean  by  such  a  phrase 
as  "Divine  control"?  for,  after  all,  the  controversy  be- 
tween religion  and  science  is  not  so  much  a  contro- 
versy as  to  the  being  or  not  being  of  a  God.  Science 
might  be  willing  to  concede  His  existence  as  a  vague 
and  ineffective  hypothesis,  but  there  would  still  re- 
main a  question  as  to  His  mode  of  action,  a  contro- 
versy as  to  the  method  of  the  Divine  government  of 
the  world. 

And  this  is  the  standing  controversy,  by  no  means 
really  dead  at  the  present  day.     Is  the  world  con- 


20  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

trolled  by  a  living  Person,  accessible  to  prayer,  influ- 
enced by  love,  able  and  willing  to  foresee,  to  inter- 
vene, to  guide  and  wistfully  to  lead  witbout  compul- 
sion spirits  in  some  sort  akin  to  Himself? 

Or  is  tbe  world  a  self-generated,  self -con  trolling 
machine,  complete  and  fully  organised  for  movement, 
either  up  or  down,  for  progress  or  degeneration,  ac- 
cording to  the  chances  of  heredity  and  the  influence 
of  environment?  Has  the  world,  as  it  were,  secreted 
or  arrived  at  life  and  mind  and  consciousness  by  the 
play  of  natural  forces  acting  on  the  complexities  of 
highly  developed  molecular  aggregates;  at  first,  life- 
cells,  ultimately  brain-cells;  and  these  are  not  the  or- 
gan or  instrument,  but  the  very  reality  and  essence 
of  life  and  of  mind? 

If  there  be  any  other  orders  of  conscious  existence 
in  the  universe,  as  probably  there  are,  are  they  also 
locked  up  on  their  several  planets,  without  the  power 
of  communicating  or  helping  or  informing,  and  all 
working  out  their  own  destiny  in  permanent  isola- 
tion? Everything  in  such  a  world  would  be  not  only 
apparently  but  really  a  definite  sequence  of  cause  and 
effect,  just  as  it  seems  to  us  here;  and  prayer,  to  be 
effectual  in  such  a  world  must  be  not  what  theologians 
mean  by  prayer,  but  must  be  either  simple  meditation 
for  acquiescence  in  the  inevitable,  or  else  a  petition 
addressed  to  some  other  of  the  dwellers  in  our  time 
and  place,  that  they  may  be  induced  by  benevolent 
acts  to  ease  some  of  the  burdens  to  which  their  peti- 
tioners are  liable. 


THE  OUTSTANDING  CONTROVERSY  21 

We  thus  return  to  our  original  thesis,  that  the  root 
question  or  outstanding  controversy  between  science 
and  faith  rests  upon  two  distinct  conceptions  of  the 
universe: — the  one,  that  of  a  self-contained  and  self- 
sufficient  universe,  with  no  outlook  into  or  links  with 
anything  beyond,  uninfluenced  by  any  life  or  mind 
except  such  as  is  connected  with  a  visible  and  tangible 
material  body;  and  the  other  conception,  that  of  a 
universe  lying  open  to  all  manner  of  spiritual  influ- 
ences, permeated  through  and  through  with  a  Divine 
spirit,  guided  and  watched  by  living  minds,  acting 
through  the  medium  of  law  indeed,  but  with  intelli- 
gence and  love  behind  the  law :  a  universe  by  no  means 
self-sufficient  or  self-contained,  but  with  sensitive  ten- 
drils groping  into  another  supersensuous  order  of 
existence,  where  reign  laws  hitherto  unimagined  by 
science,  but  laws  as  real  and  as  mighty  as  those  by 
which  the  material  universe  is  governed. 

According  to  the  one  conception,  faith  is  childish 
and  prayer  absurd;  the  only  individual  immortality 
lies  in  the  memory  of  descendants;  benevolence  and 
cheerful  acquiescence  in  fate  are  the  highest  religious 
attributes  possible ;  and  the  future  of  the  human  race 
is  determined  by  the  law  of  gravitation  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  space. 

According  to  the  other  conception,  prayer  may  be 
mighty  to  the  removal  of  mountains,  and  by  faith  we 
may  feel  ourselves  citizens  of  an  eternal  and  glorious 
cosmogony  of  mutual  help  and  co-operation,  advanc- 
ing from  lowly  stages  to  ever  higher  states  of  happy 


22  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

activity,  world  without  end,  and  may  catch  in  antici- 
pation some  glimpses  of  that  "one  far-off  divine  event 
to  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

The  whole  controversy  hinges,  in  one  sense,  on  a 
practical  pivot — the  efficacy  of  prayer.  Is  prayer  to 
hypothetical  and  supersensuous  beings  as  senseless 
and  useless  as  it  is  unscientific,  or  does  prayer  pierce 
through  the  husk  and  apparent  covering  of  the  sen- 
suous universe,  and  reach  something  living,  loving, 
and  helpful  beyond? 

And  in  another  sense  the  controversy  turns  upon  a 
question  of  fact.  Do  we  live  in  a  universe  permeated 
with  life  and  mind:  life  and  mind  independent  of 
matter  and  unlimited  in  individual  duration?  Or  is 
life  limited,  in  space  to  the  surface  of  planetary 
masses  of  matter,  and  in  time  to  the  duration  of  the 
material  envelope  essential  to  its  manifestation? 

The  answer  is  given  in  one  way  by  orthodox  mod- 
ern science,  and  in  another  way  by  Religion  of  all 
times ;  and  until  these  opposite  answers  are  made  con- 
sistent, the  reconciliation  between  Science  and  Faith  is 
incomplete. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  RECONCILIATION 


IT  may  or  may  not  have  been  observed,  by  anyone 
who  has  read  the  previous  chapter, — but  in  so  far 
as  it  has  been  missed,  the  whole  meaning  has  been 
misconceived, — that  when  speaking  of  the  atmosphere 
or  the  conclusions,  the  doctrines  or  the  tendency,  of 
"science,"  I  was  careful  always  to  explain  that  I 
meant  orthodox  or  present-day  science;  meaning  not 
the  comprehensive  grasp  of  a  Newton,  but  science  as 
now  interpreted  by  its  recognised  official  exponents, 
— by  the  average  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  for 
instance.  Just  as  by  "faith"  I  intended  not  the  ec- 
static insight  aroused  in  a  seer  by  some  momentary 
revelation,  but  the  ordinary  workaday  belief  of  the 
average  enlightened  theologian.  And  my  thesis  was 
that  the  attitudes  of  mind  appropriate  to  these  two 
classes,  were  at  present  fundamentally  diverse;  that 
there  was  still  an  outstanding  controversy,  or  ground 
for  controversy,  between  science  and  faith,  although 
active  fighting  has  been  suspended,  and  although  all 
bitterness  has  passed  from  the  conflict,  let  us  hope 
never  to  return.    But  the  diversity  remains,  and  for 

23 


24  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

the  present  it  is  better  so,  if  it  has  not  achieved  its 
work.  Eliminating  the  bitterness,  the  conflict  has 
been  useful,  and  it  would  be  far  from  well  even  to 
attempt  to  bring  it  to  a  close  prematurely.  But  yet 
there  must  be  an  end  to  it  some  time ;  reconciliation  is 
bound  to  lie  somewhere  in  the  future ;  no  two  parts  or 
aspects  of  the  Universe  can  permanently  and  really 
be  discordant.  The  only  question  is  where  the  meet- 
ing-place may  be ;  whether  it  is  nearest  to  the  orthodox 
faith  or  to  the  orthodox  science  of  the  present  day. 
This  question  is  the  subject  of  the  present  chapter, 
which  is  a  sequel  to  the  preceding.  Let  me,  greatly 
daring,  presume  to  enter  upon  the  inquiry  into  what 
is  really  true  and  essential  in  the  opposing  creeds,  how 
much  of  each  has  its  origin  in  over-hasty  assumption 
or  fancy,  and  how  far  the  opposing  views  are  merely 
a  natural  consequence  of  imperfect  vision  of  opposite 
sides  of  the  same  veil. 

First  among  the  truths  that  will  have  to  be  ac- 
cepted by  both  sides,  we  may  take  the  reign  of  Law, 
sometimes  called  the  Uniformity  of  Nature.  The  dis- 
covery of  uniformity  must  be  regarded  as  mainly  the 
work  of  Science:  it  did  not  come  by  revelation.  In 
moments  of  inspiration  it  was  glimpsed, — "the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever," — but  the  glimpse 
was  only  momentary,  the  Hebrew  "atmosphere"  was 
saturated  with  the  mists  of  cataclysm,  visible  judg- 
ments, and  conspicuous  interferences.  We  used  to 
be  told  that  the  Creator's  methods  were  adapted  to  the 
stage  of  His  Creatures,  and  varied  from  age  to  age: 
that  it  was  really  His  actions,  and  not  their  mode  of 


THE  RECONCILIATION  25 

regarding  them,  that  varied.  The  doctrine  of  uni- 
formity first  took  root  and  grew  in  scientific  soil. 

At  first  sight  this  doctrine  of  uniformity  excludes 
Divine  control;  and  the  law  of  evolution  proceeds 
still  further  in  the  direction  of  excluding  everything ; 
in  the  nature  of  personal  will,  of  intention,  of  guid- 
ance, of  adaptation,  of  management.  It  shows  that 
things  change  and  how  they  change,  and  it  attempts 
to  show  why  they  change.  The  Darwinian  form  of  it 
attempts  to  account  for  the  origin  of  species  by  in- 
evitable necessity,  free  from  artificial  selection  or  op- 
erations analogous  to  those  of  the  breeder.  The  old 
Theology  has  gone,  and  guidance  and  purpose  appear 
to  have  gone  with  it. 

At  first  sight,  but  at  first  sight  only.  So  might  an 
observer,  inspecting  some  great  and  perfect  factory, 
with  machines  constantly  weaving  patterns,  some 
beautiful,  some  ugly,  conclude,  or  permit  himself  to 
dream  at  least,  after  some  hours'  watching,  during 
which  everything  proceeded  without  a  hitch,  driven  as 
it  were  by  inexorable  fate,  that  everything  went  off 
itself,  controlled  by  cold  dreary  necessity.  And  if 
his  scrutiny  could  be  continued  for  weeks  or  years, 
and  it  still  presented  the  same  aspect,  his  dream 
would  begin  to  seem  to  be  true:  the  perfection  of 
mechanism  would  weary  the  spectator:  his  human 
weakness  would  long  for  something  to  go  wrong,  so 
that  someone  from  an  upper  office  might  step  down 
and  set  it  right  again.  Humanity  is  accustomed  to 
such  interventions  and  breaks  in  a  ceaseless  sequence, 
and,  when  no  such  breaks  and  interventions  occur, 


26  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

may  conclude  hastily  that  the  scheme  is  self-originat- 
ing, self-sustained,  that  it  works  to  no  ultimate  and 
foreseen  destiny. 

So  sometimes,  looking  at  the  east  end  of  London, 
or  many  another  only  smaller  city,  has  the  feeling  of 
despair  seized  men:  they  wonder  what  it  can  all  mean. 
So,  on  the  other  hand,  looking  at  the  loom  of  nature, 
has  the  feeling,  not  of  despair,  but  of  what  has  been 
called  atheism,  one  ingredient  of  atheism,  arisen:  athe- 
ism never  fully  realised,  and  wrongly  so-called;  re- 
cently it  has  been  called  severe  Theism  indeed:  for  it 
is  joyful  sometimes,  interested  and  placid  always,  ex- 
ultant at  the  strange  splendour  of  the  spectacle  which 
its  intellect  has  laid  bare  to  contemplation,  satisfied 
with  the  perfection  of  the  mechanism,  content  to  be  a 
part  of  the  self-generated  organism,  and  endeavour- 
ing to  think  that  the  feelings  of  duty,  of  earnest  ef- 
fort, and  of  faithful  service,  which  conspicuously 
persist  in  spite  of  all  discouragement,  are  on  this 
view  intelligible  as  well  as  instinctive,  and  sure  that 
nothing  less  than  unrepining,  unfaltering,  unswerv- 
ing acquiescence  is  worthy  of  our  dignity  as  man. 

The  law  of  evolution  not  only  studies  change  and 
progress,  it  seeks  to  trace  sequences  back  to  ante- 
cedents :  it  strains  after  the  origin  of  all  things.  But 
ultimate  origins  are  inscrutable.  Let  us  admit,  as 
scientific  men,  that  of  real  origin,  even  of  the  sim- 
plest thing,  we  know  nothing;  not  even  of  a  pebble. 
Sand  is  the  debris  of  rocks,  and  fresh  rocks  can  be 
formed  of  compacted  sand ;  but  this  suggests  infinity, 
not  origin.     Infinity  is  non-human  and  we  shrink 


THE  RECONCILIATION  27 

from  it,  yet  what  else  can  there  be  in  space?  And  if 
in  space,  why  not  in  time  also?  Much  might  be  said 
here,  but  let  it  pass.  We  must  admit  that  science 
knows  nothing  of  ultimate  origins.  Which  first, 
the  hen  or  the  egg'i  is  a  trivial  form  of  a  very 
real  puzzle.  That  the  world,  in  the  sense  of  this 
planet,  this  homely  lump  of  matter  we  call  the  earth 
— that  this  had  an  origin,  a  history,  a  past,  intelligible 
more  or  less,  growingly  intelligible  to  the  eye  of 
science,  is  true  enough.  The  date  when  it  was  molten 
may  be  roughly  estimated;  the  manner  and  mechan- 
ism of  the  birth  of  the  moon  has  been  guessed:  the 
earth  and  moon  then  originated  in  one  sense;  before 
that  they  were  part  of  a  nebula,  like  the  rest  of  the 
solar  system;  and  some  day  the  solar  system  may 
again  be  part  of  a  nebula,  by  reason  of  collision  with 
some  at  present  tremendously  distant  mass.  But 
all  that  is  nothing  to  the  Universe;  nothing  even  to 
the  visible  universe.  The  collisions  there  take  place 
every  now  and  again  before  our  eyes.  The  Universe 
is  full  of  lumps  of  matter  of  every  imaginable  size: 
the  history  of  a  solar  system  may  be  written — its  birth 
and  also  its  death,  separated  perhaps  by  millions  of 
millions  of  years;  but  what  of  that?  It  is  but  an  epi- 
sode, a  moment  in  the  eternal  cosmogony,  and  the 
eye  of  history  looks  to  what  happened  before  the 
birth  and  after  the  death  of  any  particular  aggre- 
gate; just  as  a  child  may  trace  the  origin  and  the  de- 
struction of  a  soap  bubble,  the  form  of  which  is  evan- 
escent, the  material  of  which  is  permanent. 

While  the  soap  bubble  lived  it  was  the  scene  of 


28  SCIENCE  AND   FAITH 

much  beauty  and  of  a  kind  of  law  and  order  impossi- 
ble to  the  mere  water  and  soap  out  of  which  it  was 
made,  and  into  which  again  it  lias  collapsed.  The  his- 
tory of  the  soap  bubble  can  be  written,  but  there  is  a 
before  and  an  after.  So  it  is  with  the  solar  system;  so 
with  any  assigned  collocation  of  matter  in  the  uni- 
verse. No  point  in  space  can  be  thought  of  "at  which 
if  a  man  stand  it  shall  be  impossible  for  him  to  cast  a 
javelin  into  the  beyond;"  nor  can  any  epoch  be  con- 
ceived in  time  at  which  the  mind  will  not  instantly 
and  automatically  inquire,  "and  what  before,"  or 
"what  after?" 

Yet  does  the  human  mind  pine  for  something  finite : 
it  longs  for  a  beginning,  even  if  it  could  dispense 
with  an  end.  It  has  tried  of  late  to  imagine  that  the 
law  of  dissipation  of  energy  was  a  heaven-sent  mes- 
sage of  the  finite  duration  of  the  Universe,  so  that 
before  everything  was,  it  could  seek  a  Great  First 
Cause;  and  after  everything  had  been,  could  take 
refuge  once  more  in  Him. 

Seen  more  closely,  these  are  childish  notions.  They 
would  give  no  real  help  if  they  were  true;  any  more 
than  other  fairy  tales  suitable  for  children. 

In  the  dawn  of  civilisation  God  "walked  in  the  gar- 
den in  the  cool  of  the  day."  Down  to  say  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century  He  brought  things  into 
existence  by  a  creative  Fiat,  and  looked  on  His  work 
for  a  time  with  approbation;  only  to  step  down  and 
destroy  a  good  deal  of  it  before  many  years  had 
elapsed,  and  then  to  patch  it  up  and  try  to  mend  it 
from  time  to  time. 


THE  RECONCILIATION  29 

All  very  human :  the  endless  rumble  of  the  machin- 
ery is  distressing,  perfection  is  intolerable.  Still  more 
intolerable  is  imperfection  not  attended  to;  the 
machinery  groans,  lacks  oil,  shows  signs  of  wear, 
some  of  the  fabrics  it  is  weaving  are  hideous;  why, 
why,  does  no  one  care?  Surely  the  manager  will  be- 
fore long  step  down  and  put  one  of  the  looms  to 
rights,  or  scold  a  workman,  or  tell  us  what  it  is  all  for, 
and  why  he  needs  the  woven  fabric,  der  Gottheit 
lebendiges  Kleid. 

We  see  that  he  does  not  now  interfere,  not  even 
when  things  go  very  wrong;  the  "hands"  are  left  to 
put  things  right  as  best  they  can,  nothing  mysterious 
ever  happens  now,  it  is  all  commonplace  and  semi- 
intelligible  ;  we  ourselves  could  easily  throw  a  machine 
out  of  gear;  we  do,  sometimes;  we  ourselves  if  we 
are  clever  enough  and  patient  enough,  could  even 
perform  the  far  harder  task  of  putting  one  to  right 
again;  we  could  even  suggest  fresh  patterns;  we 
seem  to  be  more  than  onlookers — as  musicians  and 
artists  we  can  create — perhaps  we  are  foremen;  and 
if  ideas  occur  to  us,  why  should  we  not  throw  them 
into  the  common  stock?  There  is  no  head  manager 
at  all,  this  thing  has  been  always  running;  as  the 
hands  die  off,  others  take  their  places;  they  have  not 
been  selected  or  appointed  to  the  job;  they  are  only 
here  as  the  fittest  of  a  large  number  of  whom  they 
alone  survive;  even  the  looms  seem  to  have  a  self- 
mending,  self -regenerative  power;  and  we  ourselves, 
we  are  not  looking  at  it  or  assisting  in  it  for  long. 
When  we  go,  other  brilliantly  endowed  and  inventive 


30  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

spectators  or  helpers  will  take  our  places.  We  under- 
stand the  whole  arrangement  now;  it  it  simpler  than 
at  first  we  thought. 

Is  it,  then,  so  simple?  Does  the  uniformity  and 
the  eternity  and  the  self-sustainedness  of  it  make  it 
the  easier  to  understand?  Are  we  so  sure  that  the 
guidance  and  control  are  not  really  continuous,  in- 
stead of  heing,  as  we  expected,  intermittent?  May 
we  be  not  looking  at  the  working  of  the  Manager  all 
the  time,  and  at  nothing  else?  Why  should  He  step 
down  and  interfere  with  Himself  ? 

That  is  the  lesson  science  has  to  teach  theology — 
to  look  for  the  action  of  the  Deity,  if  at  all,  then 
always ;  not  in  the  past  alone,  nor  only  in  the  future, 
but  equally  in  the  present.  If  His  action  is  not  visi- 
ble now,  it  never  will  be,  and  never  has  been  visible. 

Shall  we  look  for  it  in  toy  eruptions  in  the  West 
Indies?  As  well  look  for  it  in  the  fall  of  a  child's 
box  of  bricks!  Shall  we  hope  to  see  the  Deity  some 
day  step  out  of  Himself  and  display  His  might  or 
His  love  or  some  other  attribute?  We  can  see  Him 
now  if  we  look;  if  we  cannot  see,  it  is  only  that  our 
eyes  are  shut. 

"Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  nearer  than  hands  or  feet:" — 

poetry,  yes — but  also  science;  the  real  trend  and 
meaning  of  Science,  whether  of  orthodox  ' 'science" 
or  not. 

II 

There  is  nothing  new  in  Pantheism: — indeed  no! 
But  there  are  different  kinds  of  pantheism.     That 


THE  RECONCILIATION  31 

the  All  is  a  manifestation,  a  revelation  of  God, — that 
it  is  in  a  manner,  a  dim  and  ungraspable  manner,  in 
some  sort  God  Himself, — may  be  readily  granted; 
but  what  does  the  All  include?  It  were  a  strange 
kind  of  All  that  included  mountains  and  trees,  the 
forces  of  nature,  and  the  visible  material  universe 
only,  and  excluded  the  intelligence,  the  will,  the 
emotions,  the  individuality  or  personality,  of  which 
we  ourselves  are  immediately  conscious.  Shall  we 
possess  these  things  and  God  not  possess  them?  That 
would  be  no  pantheism  at  all.  Any  power,  any  love, 
of  which  we  ourselves  are  conscious  does  thereby  cer- 
tainly exist;  and  so  it  must  exist  in  highly  intensified 
and  nobler  form  in  the  totality  of  things, — unless  we 
make  the  grotesque  assumption  that  in  all  the  infinite 
universe  we  denizens  of  planet  Earth  are  the  highest. 
Let  no  worthy  human  attribute  be  denied  to  the  Deity. 
In  Anthropomorphism  there  are  many  errors,  but 
there  is  one  truth.  Whatever  worthy  attribute  be- 
longs to  man,  be  it  personality  or  any  other,  its  exist- 
ence in  the  Universe  is  thereby  admitted;  it  belongs 
to  the  All. 

The  only  conceivable  way  of  denying  personality, 
and  effort,  and  failure,  and  renewed  effort,  and 
consciousness,  and  love,  and  hate  too,  for  that  matter, 
in  the  real  whole  of  things,  is  to  regard  them,  as 
illusory, — physiological  and  purely  material  illusions 
in  ourselves.  Even  so,  they  are  in  some  sense  there; 
they  are  not  unreal,  however  they  are  to  be  accounted 
for.  We  must  blink  nothing;  evolution  is  a  truth,  a 
strange   and   puzzling   truth;    "the   whole    creation 


32  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

groaneth  and  travaileth  together;"  and  the  most 
perfect  of  all  the  sons  of  men,  the  likest  God  this 
planet  ever  saw,  He  to  whom  many  look  for  their  idea 
of  what  God  is,  surely  He  taught  us  that  suffering, 
and  sacrifice,  and  wistful  yearning  for  something  not 
yet  attainable,  were  not  to  be  regarded  as  human 
attributes  alone. 

Must  we  not  admit  the  evil  attributes  also?  In  the 
Whole,  yes;  but  one  of  our  experiences  is  that  there 
are  grades  of  existence.  We  recognise  that  in  our- 
selves the  ape  and  tiger  are  dying  out,  that  the  germs 
of  higher  faculties  have  made  their  appearance;  it  is 
an  intensification  of  the  higher  that  we  may  infer  in 
the  more  advanced  grades  of  existence ;  intensification 
of  the  lower  lies  behind  and  beneath  us. 

The  inference  or  deduction  of  some  of  the  attri- 
butes of  Deity,  from  that  which  we  can  recognise  as 
"the  likest  God  within  the  soul,"  is  a  legitimate  deduc- 
tion, if  properly  carried  out;  and  it  is  in  close  corres- 
pondence with  the  methods  of  physical  science.  It 
has  been  said  that  from  the  properties  of  a  drop  of 
water  the  possibility  of  a  Niagara  or  an  Atlantic 
might  be  inferred  by  a  man  who  had  seen  or  heard  of 
neither.1  And  it  is  true  that  by  experiment  on  a  small 
quantity  of  water  a  man  with  the  brain  of  Newton 
and  the  mathematical  power  and  knowledge  of  Lord 
Rayleigh  could  deduce  by  pure  reasoning  most  if 
not  all  of  the  inorganic  phenomena  of  an  ocean;  and 
that  not  vaguely  but  definitely ;  the  existence  of  waves 
on  its  surface,  the  rate  at  which  they  would  travel  as 

1  Sir  Conan  Doyle,  A  Study  in  Scarlet. 


THE  RECONCILIATION  S3 

dependent  upon  distance  from  crest  to  crest,  their 
maximum  height,  their  length  as  depending  on  depth 
of  sea;  the  existence  of  ripples  also,  going  at  a  dif- 
ferent pace  and  following  a  different  law ;  the  break- 
ing of  waves  upon  a  shore;  the  tides  also;  the  ocean 
currents  caused  by  inequalities  of  temperature,  and 
many  other  properties  which  are  realised  in  an  actual 
ocean: — not  as  topographical  realities  indeed,  but  as 
necessary  theoretical  consequences  of  the  hypothetical 
existence  of  so  great  a  mass  of  water.  Reasoning 
from  the  small  to  the  great  is  legitimate  reasoning, 
notwithstanding  that  by  increase  of  size  phenomena 
wholly  different  and  at  first  sight  unexpected  come 
into  being.  No  one  not  a  mathematician  looking  at 
a  drop  of  water  could  infer  the  Atlantic  billows  or 
the  tides ;  but  they  are  all  there  in  embryo,  given  gravi- 
tation; and  yet  not  there  in  actuality  in  even  the 
smallest  degree.  People  sometimes  think  that 
increase  of  size  is  mere  magnification,  and  introduces 
no  new  property.  They  are  mistaken.  Waves 
could  not  be  on  a  drop,  nor  tides  either,  nor  water- 
spouts, nor  storms.  The  simple  fact  that  the  earth  is 
large  makes  it  retain  an  atmosphere ;  and  the  existence 
of  an  atmosphere  enhances  the  importance  of  a  globe 
beyond  all  comparison,  and  renders  possible  plant 
and  animal  life.  The  simple  fact  that  the  sun  is  very 
large  makes  it  hot,  i.e.  enables  it  to  generate  heat,  and 
so  fits  it  to  be  the  centre  and  source  of  energy  to 
worlds  of  habitable  activity. 

To  suppose  that  the  deduction  of  divine  attributes 
by  intensification  of  our  own  attributes  must  neces- 


M  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

sarily  result  in  a  "magnified  non-natural  man"  is  to 
forget  these  facts  of  physical  science.  If  the  rea- 
soning is  had,  or  the  data  insufficient,  the  result  is 
worthless,  but  the  method  is  legitimate,  though  far 
from  easy;  and  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  the 
science  of  theology  can  yet  have  had  its  Newton,  or 
even  its  Copernicus.1  At  present  it  is  safest  to  walk 
by  faith  and  inspiration;  and  it  is  the  saint  and 
prophet  rather  than  the  theologian  whom  humanity 
would  prefer  to  trust. 

Ill 

Now  let  us  go  back  to  our  groping  inquiry — to  the 
series  of  questions  left  unanswered  in  the  latter 
portion  of  Chapter  I — and  ask,  what  then  of  prayer, 
regarded  scientifically;  of  miracle,  if  we  like  to  call 
it  miracle;  of  the  region  not  only  of  emotion  and  in- 
telligence, but  of  active  wTork,  guidance,  and  inter- 
ference ?  Are  these,  after  all,  so  rigorously  excluded 
by  the  reign  of  law7?  Are  not  these  also  parts  of  its 
kingdom  ?  Shall  law  apply  only  to  the  inorganic  and 
the  non-living?     Shall  it  not  rule  the  domain  of  life 

i  Theologians  may  differ  from  this  estimate;  and  if  so,  I  defer  to 
their  opinion.  It  is  well  known  that  the  topics  slightly  glanced  at  in 
the  first  half  of  this  section  have  been  profoundly  studied  by  them; 
but  the  subject  is  so  difficult  that  an  outsider  can  hardly  assume  that 
as  much  progress  has  been  made  in  Theology  as  in  the  physical  sciences. 
Not  so  much  progress  has  been  made  even  in  the  biological  sciences  as 
in  the  more  specifically  physical.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  biology  has 
had  its  Newton,  but  it  is  not  so:  Darwin  was  its  Copernicus,  and 
revolutionised  ideas  as  the  era  of  Copernicus  did.  Newton  did  not 
revolutionise  ideas:  his  was  a  synthetic  and  deductive  era. 


THE   RECONCILIATION  35 

and  of  mind  too?  Speaking  or  thinking  of  the 
Universe,  we  must  exclude  no  part; 

"All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  nature  is,  and  God  the  soul;" 

"  For  as  the  reasonable  soul  and  human  flesh  is  one  man " — 

so  God  and  man  constitute  a  unity, — a  unity  char- 
acterized bv  moral  freedom  in  accordance  with  law. 

Let  us  take  this  question  of  guidance.  We  must 
see  it  in  action  now  or  never.  Do  we  see  it  now? 
Orthodox  theology  vaguely  assumes  it;  orthodox 
science  sees  it  not  at  all.  What  is  the  truth?  Is  the 
blindness  of  science  subjective  or  objective?  Is  the 
vision  absent  because  there  is  nothing  to  see  or  be- 
cause we  have  shut  our  eyes,  and  have  declined  to  con- 
template a  region  of  dim  and  misty  fact? 

Take  the  origin  of  species  by  the  persistence  of 
favourable  variations,  how  is  the  appearance  of  those 
same  favourable  variations  accounted  for?  Except 
by  artificial  selection,  not  at  all.  Given  their  appear- 
ance, their  development  by  struggle  and  inheritance 
and  survival  can  be  explained;  but  that  they  arose 
spontaneously,  by  random  change  without  purpose, 
is  an  assertion  which  cannot  be  made.  Does  anvone 
think  that  the  skill  of  the  beaver,  the  instinct  of  the 
bee,  the  genius  of  a  man,  arose  by  chance,  and  that 
its  presence  is  accounted  for  by  handing  down  and  by 
survival?  What  struggle  for  existence  will  explain 
the  advent  of  Beethoven?  What  pitiful  necessity 
for  earning  a  living  as  a  dramatist  will  educe  for  us 


86  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

Shakespeare?  These  things  are  beyond  science  of 
the  orthodox  type;  then  let  it  be  silent  and  deny  noth- 
ing in  the  Universe  till  it  has  at  least  made  an  honest 
effort  to  comprehend  the  whole. 

Genius,  however,  science  has  made  an  effort  not 
wholly  to  ignore;  but  take  other  human  faculties — 
Premonition,  Inspiration,  Prevision,  Telepathy — 
what  is  the  meaning  of  these  things?  Orthodox  science 
refuses  to  contemplate  them,  orthodox  theology  also 
looks  at  some  of  them  askance.  Many  philosophers 
have  relegated  them  to  the  region  of  the  unconscious, 
or  the  subconscious,  where  dwell  things  of  nothing 
worth.     A  few  Psychologists  are  beginning  to  attend. 

Men  of  religion  can  hold  aloof  or  not  as  they  please : 
probably  they  had  better  hold  aloof  until  the  scientific 
basis  of  these  things  has  been  rendered  more  secure. 
At  present  they  are  beyond  the  pale  of  science,  but 
they  are  some  of  them  inside  the  Universe  of  fact, — 
all  of  them,  as  I  now  begin  to  believe, — and  their 
meaning  must  be  extracted.  So  long  as  this  region  is 
ignored,  dogmatic  science  should  be  silent.  It  has  a 
right  to  its  own  adopted  region,  it  has  no  right  to  be 
heard  outside.  It  cannot  see  guidance,  it  cannot  rec- 
ognise the  meaning  of  the  whole  trend  of  things,  the 
constant  leadings,  the  control,  the  help,  the  revela- 
tions, the  beckonings,  beyond  our  normal  bodily  and 
mental  powers.  No,  for  it  will  not  look.  What  be- 
comes of  an  intelligence  which  has  left  this  earth? 
Whence  comes  the  nascent  intelligence  wThich  arrives? 
What  is  the  meaning  of  our  human  personality  and 
individuality?     Did  we  spring  into  existence  a  few 


THE  RECONCILIATION  37 

years  ago?  Do  we  cease  to  exist  a  few  years  hence? 
It  does  not  know.     It  does  not  want  to  know. 

Does  theology  seek  enlightenment  any  more  ener- 
getically ?  No,  it  is  satisfied  with  its  present  informa- 
tion, which  some  people  mistake  for  divine  knowledge 
on  these  subjects.  Divine  knowledge  is  perhaps  not 
obtained  so  easily. 

At  present,  in  the  cosmic  scheme  we  strangely  draw 
the  line  at  man.  We  know  of  every  grade  of  animal 
life  from  the  amoeba  upwards,  with  some  slight  hiatus 
here  and  there, — the  lowest  being  single  cells  indis- 
tinguishable from  plants, — but  the  series  terminates 
with  man.  From  man  the  scale  of  existence  is  sup- 
posed to  step  to  God.  Is  it  not  somewhat  sudden? 
The  total  descent  from  man  to  the  amoeba  is  an  in- 
comparably smaller  interval.  Yet  that  is  a  deep 
declivity ;  profound,  but  not  infinite.  Why  this  sud- 
den jump  from  the  altitude  of  man  into  infinity? 
Are  there  no  intermediate  states  of  existence? 

Perhaps  on  other  planets, — yes,  bodily  existence 
on  other  planets  is  probable,  not  necessarily  on  any 
planet  of  our  solar  system,  but  that  is  a  trifle  in  the 
visible  universe;  it  is  as  our  little  five-roomed  house 
among  all  the  dwellings  of  mankind.  But  why  on 
other  planets  only?  Why  bodily  existence  only? 
Why  think  solely  of  those  incarnate  personalities 
from  whom,  by  exigencies  of  place,  we  are  most  iso- 
lated? Because  we  feel  more  akin  to  such,  and  we 
know  of  no  others.  A  good  answer  so  far,  and  a 
true.  But  do  we  wish  to  learn?  Have  we  our 
minds  open?     A  few  men  of  science  have  adduced 


38  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

evidence  of  intelligence  not  wholly  inaccessible  and 
yet  not  familiarly  accessible,  intelligence  perhaps  a 
part  of  ourselves,  perhaps  a  part  of  others,  intelli- 
gence which  seems  closely  connected  with  the  region 
of  genius,  of  telepathy,  of  clairvoyance,  to  which  I 
have  briefly  referred. 

Suppose  for  a  moment  that  there  were  a  God. 
Science  has  never  really  attempted  to  deny  His  ex- 
istence. Conceive  a  scientific  God.  How  would  He 
work?  Surely  not  by  speech  or  by  intermittent  per- 
sonal interference.  He  would  be  in,  and  among,  and 
of,  the  whole  scheme  of  things.  The  universe  is 
governed  by  law ;  effect  is  connected  with  cause ; 1  if  a 
thing  moves  it  is  because  something  moves  it,  2  effects 
are  due  and  only  due  to  agents.  If  there  be  guidance 
or  control,  it  must  be  by  agents  that  it  is  exerted. 
Then  what  in  the  scheme  of  things  would  be  His 
agents  ? 

Surely  among  such  agents  we  must  recognise  our- 
selves: we  can  at  least  consider  how  we  and  other 
animals  work.  Watch  the  bird  teaching  its  young  to 
fly,  the  mother  teaching  a  child  to  read,  the  states- 
man nursing  the  destiny  of  a  new-born  nation.  Is 
there  no  guidance  there? 

What  is  the  meaning  of  legislation  and  municipal 
government,  and  acts  of  reform,  and  all  the  struggle 
after  better  lives  for  ourselves  and  others? 

Pure  automatism,  say  some ;  an  illusion  of  free  will. 
Possibly;  but  even  a  dream  is  not  an  absolute  nonen- 

i  If  this  involves  controversy,  then  sequent  with  antecedent. 
2  This  I  wish  to  maintain  in  spite  of  controversy. 


THE  RECONCILIATION  39 

tity;  the  effort,  however  it  be  expressed  or  accounted 
for,  exists. 

What  is  all  the  effort — regarded  scientifically — 
but  the  action  of  the  totality  of  things  trying  to  im- 
prove itself,  striving  still  to  evolve  something  higher, 
holier,  and  happier,  out  of  an  inchoate  mass?  There 
may  be  many  other  ways  of  regarding  it,  but  this  is 
one.  Failures,  mistakes,  sins, — yes,  they  exist ;  evolu- 
tion would  be  meaningless  if  perfection  were  already 
attained;  but  surely  even  now  we  see  some  progress, 
surely  the  effort  of  our  saints  is  bearing  fruit.  This 
planet  has  labored  long  and  patiently  for  the  advent 
of  a  human  race,  for  millions  of  years  it  was  the  abode 
of  strange  beasts,  and  now  recently  it  has  become  the 
abode  of  man.  What  but  imperfection  would  you 
expect?  May  it  not  be  suggested  that  conscious  evil 
or  vice  looms  rather  large  in  our  eyes,  oppresses  us 
with  a  somewhat  exaggerated  sense  of  its  cosmic  im- 
portance, because  it  is  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the 
human  stage  of  development :  the  lower  animals  know 
little  or  nothing  of  it;  they  may  indeed  do  things 
which  in  men  would  be  sinful,  but  that  is  just  what 
sin  is — reversion  to  a  lower  type  after  perception  of 
a  higher.  The  consciousness  of  crime,  the  active 
pursuit  of  degradation,  does  not  arise  till  something 
like  human  intelligence  is  reached;  and  only  a  little 
higher  up  it  ceases  again.  It  appears  to  be  a  stage 
rather  rapidly  passed  through  in  the  cosmic  scheme. 
Greed,  for  instance,  greed  in  the  widest  sense,  accu- 
mulation for  accumulation's  sake:  it  is  a  human 
defect,  and  one  responsible  for  much  misery  to-day; 


H)  SCIENCE  AND   FAITH 

but  it  arose  recently,  and  already  it  is  felt  to  be  below 
the  standard  of  the  race.  A  stage  very  Jiltle  above 
present  humanity,  not  at  all  above  the  higher  grades 
of  present  humanity,  and  we  shall  be  free  from  it 
again. 

Let  us  be  thankful  we  have  got  thus  far,  and 
struggle  on  a  little  farther.  It  is  our  destiny,  and 
whether  here  or  elsewhere  it  will  be  accomplished. 

We  are  God's  agents,  visible  and  tangible  agents, 
and  we  can  help ;  we  ourselves  can  answer  some  kinds 
of  prayer,  so  it  be  articulate;  we  ourselves  can  inter- 
fere with  the  course  of  inanimate  nature,  can  make 
waste  places  habitable  and  habitable  places  waste. 
Not  by  breaking  laws  do  we  ever  influence  nature — 
we  cannot  break  a  law  of  nature,  it  is  not  brittle,  we 
only  break  ourselves  if  we  try — but  by  obeying 
them.  In  acordance  with  law  we  have  to  act,  but  act 
we  can  and  do,  and  through  us  acts  the  Deity. 

And  perhaps  not  alone  through  us.  We  are  the 
highest  bodily  organisms  on  this  material  planet,  and 
the  material  control  of  it  belongs  to  us.  It  is  subject 
to  the  laws  of  Physics  and  to  the  laws  of  our  minds 
operating  through  our  bodies.  If  there  are  other 
beings  near  us  they  do  not  trespass.  It  is  our  sphere, 
so  far  as  Plrysics  are  concerned.  Of  any  excep- 
tions to  this  statement,  stringent  proof  must  be  forth- 
coming. 

Assertions  are  made  that  under  certain  strange 
conditions  'physical  interference  does  occur;  but  there 
is  always  a  person  of  unusual  type  present  when 
these  things  happen,  and  until  we  know  more  of  the 


THE  RECONCILIATION  41 

power  of  the  unconscious  human  personality,  it  is 
simplest  to  assume  that  these  physical  acts  are  due, 
whether  consciously,  or  unconsciously,  to  that  person. 

But  what  about  our  mental  acts?  We  can  operate 
on  each  other's  minds  through  our  physical  envelope, 
by  speech  and  writing  and  in  other  ways,  T)ut  we  can 
do  more :  it  appears  that  we  can  operate  at  a  distance, 
by  no  apparent  physical  organ  or  medium;  if  by 
mechanism  at  all,  then  by  mechanism  at  present  un- 
known to  us. 

Supposing,  then,  that  we  are  open  to  influence 
from  each  other  by  non-corporeal  methods,  may  we 
not  be  open  also  to  influence  from  beings  belonging 
to  another  order?  And  if  so,  may  we  not  be  aided, 
inspired,  guided,  by  a  cloud  of  witnesses, — not  wit- 
nesses only,  but  helpers,  agents  like  ourselves  of  the 
immanent  God? 

How  do  we  know  that  in  the  mental  sphere  these 
cannot  answer  prayer,  as  we  in  the  physical?  It  is 
not  a  speculation  only,  it  is  a  question  for  experience 
to  decide.  Are  we  conscious  of  guidance ;  do  we  feel 
that  prayers  are  answered?  that  power  to  do,  and  to 
will,  and  to  think,  is  given  us?  Many  there  are  who 
with  devout  thankfulness  will  say  yes. 

They  attribute  it  to  the  Deity;  so  can  we  attribute 
everything  to  the  Deity,  from  thunder  and  lightning 
down  to  daily  bread ;  but  is  it  direct  action  ?  Does  He 
not  distribute  the  work  among  agents?  That  is  what 
analogy  suggests,  but  it  is  difficult  to  discriminate; 
and  it  is  not  necessary;  the  whole  is  linked  together, 

"Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 


42  SCIENCE  AM)  FAITH 

and  through  it  all  His  energising  Spirit  runs.  On 
any  hypothesis  it  must  he  to  the  Lord  that  we  pray — 
to  the  highest  we  know  or  can  conceive;  hut  the  answer 
shall  come  in  ways  we  do  not  know,  and  there  must 
always  he  a  far  Higher  than  ever  we  can  conceive. 

Religious  people  seem  to  he  losing  some  of  their 
faith  in  prayer:  they  think  it  scientific  not  to  pray  in 
the  sense  of  simple  petition.  They  may  be  right:  it 
may  be  the  highest  attitude  never  to  ask  for  anything 
specific,  only  for  acquiescence.  If  saints  feel  it  so, 
they  are  doubtless  right  but,  so  far  as  ordinary 
science  has  anything  to  say  to  the  contrary,  a  more 
childlike  attitude  might  turn  out  truer,  more  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  total  scheme.  Prayer  for  a  fancied 
good  that  might  really  be  an  injury,  would  be  foolish; 
prayer  for  breach  of  law  would  be  not  foolish  only 
but  profane;  but  who  are  we  to  dogmatise  too 
positively  concerning  law?  A  martyr  may  have 
prayed  that  he  should  not  feel  the  fire.  Can  it  be 
doubted  that,  whether  through  what  we  call  hypnotic 
suggestion  or  by  some  other  name,  the  granting  of  it 
was  at  least  possible?  Prayer,  we  have  been  told,  is 
a  mighty  engine  of  achievement,  but  we  have  ceased 
to  believe  it.  Why  should  we  be  so  incredulous? 
Even  in  medicine,  for  instance,  it  is  not  really  absurd 
to  suggest  that  drugs  and  no  prayer  may  be  almost  as 
foolish  as  prayer  and  no  drugs.1     Mental  and  phys- 

i  Diseases  are  like  weeds ;  gardening  is  a  bacteriological  problem. 
Some  bacteria  are  good  and  useful  and  necessary;  they  act  in  digestion, 
in  manures,  etc.;  others  are  baleful  and  mean  disease.  The  gardener, 
like  the  physician,  has  to  cultivate  the  plants  and  eradicate  the  weeds. 


THE  RECONCILIATION  43 

ical  are  interlocked.  The  crudities  of  "faith-healing" 
have  a  germ  of  truth,  perhaps  as  much  truth  as  can 
be  claimed  by  those  who  condemn  them.  How  do  we 
know  that  each  is  not  ignoring  one  side,  that  each  is 
but  half  educated,  each  only  adopting  half  measures  ? 
The  whole  truth  may  be  completer  and  saner  than  the 
sectaries  dream :  more  things  may  be 

"wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of." 

We  are  not  bodies  alone,  nor  spirits  alone,  but  both ; 
our  bodies  isolate  us,  our  spirits  unite  us:  if  I  may 
venture  on  the  construction  of  two  lines,  we  are  like 

Floating  lonely  icebergs,  our  crests  above  the  ocean, 
With  deeply  submerged  portions  united  by  the  sea. 

The  conscious  part  is  knowing;  the  subconscious 
part  is  ignorant:  yet  the  subconscious  can  achieve  re- 
sults the  conscious  can  by  no  means  either  understand 
or  perform.  Witness  the  physical  operations  of  "sug- 
gestion" and  the  occasional  lucidity  of  trance. 

Each  one   of  us  has  a   great  region   of  the   sub- 

If  he  ignores  the  existence  of  weeds  and  says  they  are  all  plants,  he 
speaks  truth  as  a  botanist,  but  is  not  a  practical  gardener.  If  he  says, 
"Gardening  is  all  effort  on  my  part,  and  nothing  comes  from  the  sky, 
I  will  dig  and  I  will  water,  I  care  not  for  casual  rain  or  for  sun,"  he 
errs  foolishly  on  one  side.  If  he  says,  "The  sun  and  the  rain  do  every- 
thing, there  is  no  need  for  my  exertion,"  he  errs  on  the  other  side,  and 
errs  more  dangerously;  because  he  can  abstain  from  action,  whereas  he 
cannot  exclude  rain  and  sun,  however  much  he  presumes  to  ignore  them: 
he  ought  to  be  a  part  of  the  agency  at  work.  Sobriety  and  sanity  con- 
sist in  recognising  all  the  operative  causes — spiritual,  mental,  and  ma- 
terial. 


44  SCIENCE  AM)  FAITH 

conscious,  to  which  we  do  not  and  need  not  attend: 
only  let  us  not  deny  it,  let  us  not  cut  ourselves  off 
from  its  sustaining  power.  If  we  have  instinct  for 
worship,  for  prayer,  for  communion  with  saints  or 
with  Deity,  let  us  trust  that  instinct,  for  there  lies 
the  true  realm  of  religion.  We  may  try  to  raise  the 
subconscious  region  into  the  light  of  day,  and  study 
it  with  our  intellect  also;  but  let  us  not  assume  that 
our  present  conscious  intelligence  is  already  so  well 
informed  that  its  knowledge  exhausts  or  determines 
or  bounds  the  region  of  the  true  and  the  impossible. 

IV 

As  to  w7hat  is  scientifically  possible  or  impossible, 
anything  not  self -contradictory  or  inconsistent  with 
other  truth  is  possible.  Speaking  from  our  present 
scientific  ignorance,  and  in  spite  of  the  extract  from 
Professor  Tyndall  quoted  previously,  this  statement 
must  be  accepted  as  literally  true,  for  all  we 
know  to  the  contrary.  There  may  be  reasons  why 
certain  things  do  not  occur:  our  experience  tells  us 
that  they  do  not,  and  we  may  judge  that  there  is  some 
reason  why  they  do  not.  There  may  be  an  adapta- 
tion, an  arrangement  among  the  forces  of  nature — 
the  forces  of  nature  in  their  widest  sense — wdiich  en- 
chains them  and  screens  us  from  their  destructive 
action;  after  the  same  sort  of  fashion  as  the  atmos- 
phere screens  the  earth  from  the  furious  meteoric 
buffeting  it  would  otherwise  encounter  on  its  portent- 


THE  RECONCILIATION  45 

ous  journey  through  ever  new  and  untried  depths  of 
space.1 

We  may  indeed  be  well  protected;  we  must,  else 
we  should  not  be  here;  but  as  to  what  is  possible — 
think  of  any  lower  creature,  low  enough  in  the  scale 
of  existence  to  ignore  us,  and  to  treat  us,  too,  as 
among  the  forces  of  nature,  and  then  let  us  bethink 
ourselves  of  how  we  may  appear,  not  to  God  or  to  any 
infinite  being,  but  to  some  personal  intelligence  high 
above  us  in  the  scale  of  existence.  Consider  a  colony 
of  ants,  and  conceive  them  conscious  at  their  level; 
what  know  they  of  fate  and  of  the  future?  Much 
what  we  know.  They  may  think  themselves  governed 
by  uniform  law — uniform,  that  is,  even  to  their  un- 
derstanding— the  march  of  the  seasons,  the  struggle 
for  existence,  the  weight  of  the  soil,  the  properties  of 
matter  as  they  encounter  it — no  more.  For  centuries 
they  may  have  continued  thus;  when  one  day,  quite 
unexpectedly,  a  shipwrecked  sailor  strolling  round 
kicks  their  ant-hill  over.  To  and  fro  they  run,  over- 
whelmed with  the  catastrophe.  What  shall  hinder  his 
crushing  them  with  his  heel?  Labor  are  est  or  are  in 
their  case.  Let  them  watch  him  and  see,  or  fancy 
that  he  sees,  in  their  movements  the  signs  of  industry, 
of  system,  of  struggle  against  untoward  circum- 
stances; let  him  note  the  moving  of  eggs,  the  trying 
to  save  and  to  repair — the  act  of  destruction  may  by 
that  means  be  averted. 

i  The  earth  does  not  describe  anything  like  a  closed  curve  per  annum; 
the  sun  advances  rather  more  than  ten  miles  per  second,  in  what  is  prac- 
tically a  straight  line. 


46  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

Just  as  our  earth  is  midway  among  the  lumps  of 
matter,  neither  small  like  a  meteoric  stone,  nor 
gigantic  like  a  sun,  so  may  be  the  place  we,  the  human 
race,  occupy  in  the  scale  of  existence.  All  our  ordi- 
nary views  are  based  on  the  notion  that  we  are  highest 
in  the  scale;  upset  that  notion  and  anything  is  possi- 
ble. Possible,  but  we  have  to  ascertain  the  facts :  not 
what  might,  but  what  does  occur.  Into  the  lives  of 
the  lower  creatures  caprice  assuredly  seems  to  enter; 
the  treatment  of  a  fly  by  a  child  is  capricious,  and  may 
be  regarded  as  puzzling  to  the  fly.  As  we  rise  in  the 
scale  of  existence  wre  hope  that  things  get  better;  we 
have  experience  that  they  do.  It  may  be  said  that 
up  to  a  point  in  the  scale  of  life  vice  and  caprice 
increase ;  that  the  lower  organisms  and  the  plant  world 
know  nothing  of  them,  and  that  man  has  been  most 
wicked  of  all ;  but  they  reach  a  maximum  at  a  certain 
stage — a  stage  the  best  of  the  human  race  have 
already  passed — and  we  need  not  postulate  either  vice 
or  caprice  in  our  far  superiors.  Men  have  thought 
themselves  the  sport  of  the  gods  before  now,  but  let 
us  hope  they  were  mistaken.  Such  thoughts  would 
lead  to  madness  and  despair.  We  do  not  know  the 
laws  which  govern  the  interaction  of  different  orders 
of  intelligence,  nor  do  we  know  how  much  may  de- 
pend on  our  own  attitude  and  conduct.  It  may  be 
that  prayer  is  an  instrument  which  can  control  or  in- 
fluence higher  agencies,  and  by  its  neglect  we  may  be 
losing  the  use  of  a  mighty  engine  to  help  on  our  lives 
and  those  of  others. 

The  Universe   is  huge   and  awful   every  way,  we 


THE  RECONCILIATION  47 

might  so  easily  be  crushed  by  it;  we  need  the  help  of 
every  agency  available,  and  if  we  had  no  helpers  we 
should  stand  a  poor  chance.  The  loneliness  of  it  when 
we  leave  the  planet  would  be  appalling;  sometimes 
even  here  the  loneliness  is  great. 

What  the  "protecting  atmosphere"  for  our  disem- 
bodied souls  may  be,  I  know  not.  Some  may  liken 
the  protection  to  the  care  of  a  man  for  a  dog,  of  a 
woman  for  a  child,  of  a  far-seeing  minister  for  a  race 
of  bewildered  slaves ;  while  others  may  dash  aside  the 
contemplation  of  all  intermediate  agencies,  and  feel 
themselves  safe  and  enfolded  in  the  protecting  love 
of  God  Himself. 

The  region  of  true  Religion  and  the  region  of  a 
completer  Science  are  one. 


CHAPTER  III 
RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE 

I.  Science  and  Religion 

fin  HERE  was  a  time  when  religious  people  dis- 
X  trusted  the  increase  of  knowledge,  and  con- 
demned the  mental  attitude  which  takes  delight  in  its 
pursuit,  being  in  dread  lest  part  of  the  foundation 
of  their  faith  should  be  undermined  by  a  too  ruthless 
and  unqualified  spirit  of  investigation. 

There  has  been  a  time  when  men  engaged  in  the 
quest  of  systematic  knowledge  had  an  idea  that  the 
results  of  their  studies  would  be  destructive  not  only 
of  outlying  accretions  but  of  substantial  portions  of 
the  edifice  of  religion  which  has  been  gradually 
erected  by  the  prophets  and  saints  of  humanity. 

Both  these  epochs  will  soon  belong  to  history. 
Thoughtful  men  realise  that  truth  is  the  important 
thing,  and  that  to  take  refuge  in  any  shelter  less  sub- 
stantial than  the  truth  is  to  render  themselves  liable 
to  abject  exposure  when  a  storm  comes  on.  Few  are 
not  aware  that  it  is  a  sign  of  unbalanced  judgment 
to  conclude,  on  the  strength  of  a  few  momentous 
discoveries,  that  the  whole  structure  of  religious  be- 
lief, built  up  through  the  ages  by  the  developing 

48 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  49 

human  race  from  fundamental  emotions  and  instincts 
and  experiences,  is  unsubstantial  and  insecure. 

The  business  of  Science,  including  in  that  term,  for 
present  purposes,  philosophy  and  the  science  of  criti- 
cism, is  with  foundations;  the  business  of  Religion  is 
with  superstructure.  Science  has  laboriously  laid  a 
solid  foundation  of  great  strength,  and  its  votaries 
have  rejoiced  over  it;  though  their  joy  must  perforce 
be  somewhat  dumb  and  inexpressive  until  the  more 
vocal  apostles  of  art  and  literature  and  music  are  able 
to  decorate  it  with  their  light  and  more  winsome 
tracery:  so  for  the  present  the  structure  of  science 
strikes  a  stranger  as  severe  and  forbidding.  In  a 
neighbouring  territory  Religion  occupies  a  splendid 
building — a  gorgeously-decorated  palace;  concerning 
which,  Science,  not  yet  having  discovered  a  satisfac- 
tory basis,  is  sometimes  inclined  to  suspect  that  it  is 
phantasmal  and  mainly  supported  on  legend. 

Without  any  controversy  it  may  be  admitted  that 
the  foundation  and  the  superstructure,  as  at  present 
known,  are  inadequately  fitted  together;  and  that 
there  is,  in  consequence,  an  apparent  dislocation. 
Men  of  science  have  exclaimed  that  all  solid  truth 
is  in  their  keeping;  adopting  in  that  sense  the  words 
of  the  poet: 

"To  the  solid  ground 
Of  Nature  trusts  the  mind  which  builds   for  aye." 

On  the  other  hand  men  of  Religion  snugly 
ensconced  in  their  traditional  eyrie,  and  objecting  to 
the  digging  and  the  hammering  below,  have  shud- 


50  SCIENCE   AM)   FAITH 

dered  as  the  artificial  props  and  pillars  by  which  they 

supposed  it  to  be  buttressed  gave  way  one  after 
another;    and    have    doubted    whether     they    could 

continue  to  enjoy  peace  in  their  exalted  home  if  it 
turned  out  that  part  of  it  was  suspended  in  air,  with- 
out any  perceptible  foundation  at  all,  like  the 
phantom  city  in  "Gareth  and  Lyrnette"  whereof  it 
could  be  said: 

"the  city  is  built 
To  music,  therefore  never  built  at  all, 
And  therefore  built  for  ever." 

Remarks  as  to  lack  of  solid  foundation  may  be  re- 
garded as  typical  of  the  mild  kind  of  sarcasm  which 
people  with  superficial  smattering  of  popular  science 
sometimes  try  to  pour  upon  religion.  They  think  that 
to  accuse  a  system  of  being  devoid  of  solid  foundation 
is  equivalent  to  denying  its  stability.  On  the  contrary, 
as  Tennyson  no  doubt  perceived,  the  absence  of  any- 
thing that  may  crumble  or  decay,  or  be  shaken  by 
an  earthquake,  is  a  safeguard  rather  than  a  danger. 
It  is  the  absence  of  material  foundation  that  makes 
the  Earth  itself,  for  instance,  so  secure:  if  it  were 
based  upon  a  pedestal,  or  otherwise  solidly  supported, 
we  might  be  anxious  about  the  stability  and  dura- 
bility of  the  support.  As  it  is,  it  floats  securely  in 
the  emptiness  of  space. 

Similarly  the  persistence  of  its  diurnal  spin  is  se- 
cured by  the  absence  of  anything  to  stop  it :  not  by  any 
maintaining  mechanism. 

To  say  that  a  system  does  not  rest  upon  one  special 
fact  is   not  to   impugn   its   stability.     The   body  of 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  51 

scientific  truth  rests  on  no  solitary  material  fact  or 
group  of  facts,  but  on  a  basis  of  harmony  and  con- 
sistency between  facts:  its  support  and  ultimate 
sanction  is  of  no  material  character.  To  conceive  of 
Christianity  as  built  upon  an  Empty  Tomb,  or  any 
other  plain  physical  or  historical  fact,  is  dangerous. 
To  base  it  upon  the  primary  facts  of  consciousness 
or  upon  direct  spiritual  experience,  as  Paul  did,  is 
safer.1  There  are  parts  of  the  structure  of  Religion 
which  may  safely  be  underpinned  by  physical  science : 
the  theory  of  death  and  of  continued  personal  exist- 
ence is  one  of  them;  there  are  many  others  and  there 
will  be  more.  But  there  are  and  always  will  be  vast 
religious  regions  for  which  that  kind  of  scientific 
foundation  would  be  an  impertinence,  though  a 
scientific  contribution  is  appropriate.  Perhaps  these 
may  be  summed  up  in  some  such  phrase  as  "the  rela- 
tion of  the  soul  to  God." 

Assertions  are  made  concerning  material  facts  in 
the  name  of  religion;  these  science  is  bound  to 
criticise.  Testimony  is  borne  to  inner  personal  ex- 
perience; on  that  physical  science  does  well  to  be 
silent.  Nevertheless  many  of  us  are  impressed  with 
the  conviction  that  everything  in  the  universe  may  be- 
come intelligible  if  we  go  the  right  way  to  work ;  and 

i  It  will  be  represented  that  I  am  here  intending  to  cast  doubt  upon 
a  fundamental  tenet  of  the  Church.  That  is  not  mv  intention.  My  con- 
tention here  is  merely  that  a  great  structure  should  not  rest  upon  a 
point.  So  might  a  lawyer  properly  say:  "To  base  a  legal  decision  upon 
the  position  of  a  comma,  or  other  punctuation, — however  undisputed  its 
occurrence — is  dangerous;  to  base  it  upon  the  general  sense  of  a  docu- 
ment is  safer." 


52  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

so  we  are  coming  to  recognise,  on  the  one  hand,  that 
every  system  of  truth  must  be  intimately  connected 
with  every  other,  and  that  this  connection  will  con- 
stitute a  trustworthy  support  as  soon  as  it  is  revealed 
by  the  progress  of  knowledge ;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
that  the  extensive  foundation  of  truth  now  being  laid 
by  scientific  workers  will  ultimately  support  a  gor- 
geous building  of  aesthetic  feeling  and  religious  faith. 

Theologians  have  been  apt  to  be  too  easily  satisfied 
with  a  pretended  foundation  that  would  not  stand 
scientific  scrutiny;  they  seem  to  believe  that  the  re- 
ligious edifice,  with  its  mighty  halls  for  the  human 
spirit,  can  rest  upon  some  event  or  statement,  instead 
of  upon  man's  nature  as  a  whole ;  and  they  are  apt  to 
decline  to  reconsider  their  formulae  in  the  light  of 
fuller  knowledge  and  development. 

Scientific  men,  on  the  other  hand,  have  been  liable 
to  suppose  that  no  foundation  which  they  have  not 
themselves  laid  can  be  of  a  substantial  character, 
thereby  ignoring  the  possibility  of  an  ancestral 
accumulation  of  sound  through  unformulated  ex- 
perience. And  a  few  of  the  less  considerate,  about  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago,  amused  themselves  by  in- 
stituting a  kind  of  jubilant  rat-hunt  under  the  ven- 
erable theological  edifice:  a  procedure  necessarily 
obnoxious  to  its  occupants.  The  exploration  was  un- 
pleasant, but  its  results  have  been  purifying  and 
healthful,  and  the  permanent  substratum  of  fact  will 
in  due  time  be  cleared  of  the  decaying  refuse  of 
centuries. 

Some  of  the  more  seriously  conducted  controversy 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  53 

between  the  two  contending  parties  turned  upon 
those  frequently  discussed  topics — the  possibility  of 
the  Miraculous,  and  the  efficacy  of  Prayer.  Let  us 
elaborate  the  thesis  maintained  in  the  last  chapter, 
by  discussing  further,  though  still  briefly,  these  two 
connected  subjects. 

II.  Meaning  of  Miracle 

We  must  begin  by  admitting  that  the  term  "mira- 
cle' '  is  ambiguous,  and  that  no  discussion  which  takes 
that  term  as  a  basis  can  be  very  fruitful,  since  the 
combatants  may  all  be  meaning  different  things. 

1.  One  user  of  the  term  may  mean  merely  an  un- 
usual event  of  which  we  do  not  know  the  history  and 
cause,  a  bare  wonder  or  prodigy ;  such  an  event  as  the 
course  of  nature  may,  for  all  we  know,  bring  about 
once  in  ten  thousand  years  or  so,  leaving  no  record  of 
its  occurrence  in  the  past  and  no  anticipatory  proba- 
bility of  its  re-occurrence  in  the  future.  The  raining 
down  of  fire  on  Sodom,  or  on  Pompeii;  the  sudden  en- 
gulphing  of  Korah,  or  of  Marcus  Curtius,  or,  on  a 
different  plane,  the  advent  of  some  transcendent 
genius,  or  even  of  a  personality  so  lofty  as  to  be 
called  divine,  may  serve  as  examples. 

2.  Another  employer  of  the  term  "miracle"  may 
add  to  this  idea  a  definite  hypothesis,  and  may  mean 
an  act  due  to  unknown  intelligent  and  living  agencies 
operating  in  a  self-willed  and  unpredictable  manner, 
thus  effecting  changes  that  would  not  otherwise  have 
occurred  and  that  are  not  in  the  regular  course  of 
nature.     The   easiest   example   to   think   of   is    one 


54  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

wherein  the  lower  animals  are  chiefly  concerned;  for 
instance,  consider  the  case  of  the  community  of  an 
ant-hill,  on  a  lonely  uninhabited  island,  undisturbed 
for  centuries,  whose  dwelling  is  kicked  over  one  day 
by  a  shipwrecked  sailor.  They  had  reason  to  suppose 
that  events  were  uniform,  and  all  their  difficult ies 
ancestrally  known;  but  they  are  perturbed  by  an  un- 
intelligible miracle.  A  different  illustration  is  af- 
forded by  the  presence  of  an  obtrusive  but  unsus- 
pected live  insect  in  a  galvanometer  or  other  measur- 
ing instrument  in  a  physical  laboratory;  whereby 
metrical  observations  would  be  complicated,  and  all 
regularity  perturbed,  in  a  puzzling  and  capricious 
and,  to  half-instructed  knowledge,  supernatural,  or 
even  diabolical,  manner.  Not  dissimilar  are  some  of 
the  asserted  events  in  a  Seance  Room. 

3.  Another  may  use  the  term  "miracle"  to  mean  the 
utilisation  of  unknown  laws  say  of  healing  or  of  com- 
munication; laws  unknown  and  unformulated,  but 
instinctively  put  into  operation  by  mental  activity  of 
some  kind, — sometimes  through  the  unconscious  in- 
fluence of  so-called  self-suggestion,  sometimes 
through  the  activity  of  another  mind,  or  through  the 
personal  agency  of  highly  gifted  beings,  operating 
on  others;  laws  whereby  time  and  space  appear  tem- 
porarily suspended,  or  extraordinary  cures  are  ef- 
fected, or  other  effects  produced,  such  as  the  levita- 
tions  and  other  physical  phenomena  related  of  the 
saints. 

4.  Another  may  incorporate  with  the  word  "mira- 
cle" a  still  further  infusion  of  theory,  and  may  mean 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  55 

always  a  direct  interposition  of  Divine  Providence, 
whereby  at  some  one  time  and  place  a  perfectly 
unique  occurrence  is  brought  about,  which  is  out  of  re- 
lation with  the  established  order  of  things,  is  not  due  to 
what  has  gone  before,  and  is  not  likely  to  occur  again. 
The  most  striking  examples  of  what  can  be  claimed 
under  this  head  are  connected  with  the  personality  of 
Jesus  Christ,  notably  the  Virgin  Birth  and  the  Empty 
Tomb;  by  which  I  mean  the  more  material  and  con- 
troversial aspects  of  those  generally  accepted  doc- 
trines— the  Incarnation  and  the  Resurrection. 

To  summarise  this  part,  the  four  categories  are: 

(1)  A  natural  or  orderly  though  unusual  portent, 

(2)  a  disturbance  due  to  unknown  live  or  capricious 
agencies,  (3)  a  utilisation  by  mental  or  spiritual 
power  of  unknown  laws,  (4)  direct  interposition  of 
the  Deity. 

III.  Arguments  concerning  the  Miraculous. 

In  some  cases  an  argument  concerning  the  so-called 
miraculous  will  turn  upon  the  question  whether  such 
things  are  theoretically  possible. 

In  other  cases  it  will  turn  upon  whether  or  not 
they  have  ever  actually  happened. 

In  a  third  case  the  argument  will  be  directed  to  the 
question  whether  they  happened  or  not  on  some  par- 
ticular occasion. 

And  in  a  fourth  case  the  argument  will  hinge  upon 
the  particular  category  under  which  any  assigned  oc- 
currence is  to  be  placed: — 

For  instance,  take  a  circumstance  which  undoubt- 


56  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

edly  has  occurred,  one  upon  the  actual  existence  of 
which  there  can  be  no  dispute,  and  yet  one  of  which 
the  history  and  manner  is  quite  unknown.  Take,  for 
instance,  the  origin  of  Life;  or  to  be  more  definite, 
say  the  origin  of  life  on  any  given  planet,  the  Earth 
for  instance.  There  is  practically  no  doubt  that  the 
Earth  was  once  a  hot  and  molten  and  sterile  globe. 
There  is  no  doubt  at  all  that  it  is  now  the  abode  of  an 
immense  variety  of  living  organic  nature.  How  did 
that  life  arise?  Is  it  an  event  to  be  placed  under 
head  (1),  as  an  unexpected  outcome  of  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature,  a  development  naturally  following 
upon  the  formation  of  extremely  complex  molecular 
aggregates — protoplasm  and  the  like — as  the  Earth 
cooled;  or  must  it  be  placed  under  head  (4) ,  as  due  to 
the  direct  Fiat  of  the  Eternal? 

Again,  take  the  existence  of  Christianity  as  a  living 
force  in  the  world  of  to-day.  This  is  based  upon  a 
series  of  events  of  undoubtedly  substantial  truth  cen- 
tering round  a  historical  personage ;  under  which  cate- 
gory is  that  to  be  placed?  Was  his  advent  to  be  re- 
garded as  analogous  to  the  appearance  of  a  mighty 
genius  such  as  may  at  any  time  revolutionise  the 
course  of  human  history;  or  is  he  to  be  regarded  as  a 
direct  manifestation  and  incarnation  of  the  Deity 
Himself? 

I  am  using  these  great  themes  as  illustrations 
merely,  for  our  present  purpose;  I  have  no  intention 
of  entering  upon  them  in  this  chapter.  They  are 
questions  wrhich  have  been  asked,  and  presumably  an- 
swered, again  and  again;  and  it  is  on  lines  such  as 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  57 

these  that  debates  concerning  the  miraculous  are 
usually  conducted.  But  what  I  want  to  say  is  that 
so  long  as  we  keep  the  discussion  on  these  lines,  and 
ask  this  sort  of  question,  though  we  shall  succeed  in 
emphasizing  difficulties,  we  shall  not  progress  far  to- 
wards a  solution  of  any  of  them:  nor  shall  we  gain 
much  aid  towards  life. 

IV.  Law  and  Guidance 

The  way  to  progress  is  not  thus  to  lose  ourselves  in 
detail  and  in  confusing  estimates  of  possibilities,  but 
to  consider  two  main  issues  which  may  very  briefly  be 
formulated  thus: 

1.  Are  we  to  believe  in  irrefragable  law? 

2.  Are  we  to  believe  in  spiritual  guidance? 

If  we  affirm  the  first  of  these  issues  we  accept  an 
orderly  and  systematic  universe,  with  no  arbitrary 
cataclysms  and  no  breaks  in  its  essential  continuity. 
Catastrophes  occur,  but  they  occur  in  the  regular 
course  of  events,  they  are  not  brought  about  by  capri- 
cious and  lawless  agencies;  they  are  a  part  of  the 
entire  cosmos,  regulated  on  the  principle  of  unity  and 
uniformity:  though  to  the  dwellers  in  any  time  and 
place,  from  whose  senses  most  of  the  cosmos  is  hid- 
den, they  may  appear  to  be  sudden  and  portentous 
dislocations  of  natural  order. 

So  much  is  granted  if  we  accept  the  first  of  the 
above  issues.  If  we  accept  the  second,  we  accept  a 
purposeful  and  directed  universe,  carrying  on  its  evo- 


58  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

lutionary  processes  from  an  inevitable  past  into  an 
anticipated  future  with  a  definite  aim;  not  left  to  the 
random  control  of  inorganic  forces  like  a  motor-car 
which  has  lost  its  driver,  but  permeated  throughout 
by  mind  and  intention  and  foresight  and  will.  Not 
mere  energy,  but  constantly  directed  energy — the 
energy  being  controlled  by  something  which  is  not 
energy,  nor  akin  to  energy,  something  which  presum- 
ably is  immanent  in  the  universe  and  is  akin  to  life 
and  mind. 

The  alternative  to  these  two  beliefs  is  a  universe  of 
random  chance  and  capricious  disorder,  not  a  cosmos 
or  universe  at  all — a  multiverse  rather.  Consequently 
I  take  it  that  we  all  hold  to  one  or  other  of  these  two 
beliefs.    But  do  we  and  can  we  hold  to  both? 

So  far  as  I  conceive  my  present  mission,  it  is  to 
urge  that  the  two  beliefs  are  not  inconsistent  with 
each  other,  and  that  we  may  and  should  contemplate 
and  gradually  feel  our  way  towards  accepting  both. 

1.  We  must  realise  that  the  Whole  is  a  single 

undeviating  law-saturated  cosmos; 

2.  But  we  must  also  realise  that  the  Whole  con- 

sists not  of  matter  and  motion  alone,  nor 
yet  of  spirit  and  will  alone,  but  of  both  and 
all;  we  must  even  yet  further,  and  enor- 
mously, enlarge  our  conception  of  what  the 
Whole  contains. 

Scientific  men  have  preached  the  first  of  these  de- 
siderata, but  have  been  liable  to  take  a  narrow  view 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  59 

regarding  the  second.  Keenly  alive  to  law,  and 
knowledge,  and  material  fact,  they  have  been  occa- 
sionally blind  to  art,  to  emotion,  to  poetry,  and  to  the 
higher  mental  and  spiritual  environment  which  in- 
spires and  glorifies  the  realm  of  knowledge. 

The  temptation  of  religious  men  has  also  lain  in  the 
direction  of  too  narrow  exclusiveness ;  for  they  have 
been  so  occupied  with  their  own  conceptions  of 
the  fulness  of  things  that  they  have  failed  to  grasp 
what  is  implied  by  a  strictly  orderly  cosmos.  They 
have  allowed  the  emotional  content  to  overpower 
the  intellectual,  and  have  too  often  ignored,  disliked, 
and  practically  rejected,  an  integral  portion  of  the 
scheme, — appearing  to  desire,  what  no  one  can  really 
wish  for,  a  world  of  uncertainty  and  caprice,  where 
effects  can  be  produced  without  adequate  cause,  and 
where  the  connection  of  antecedent  and  consequent 
can  be  arbitrarily  dislocated. 

The  same  error  has  therefore  dogged  the  steps  of 
both  classes  of  men.  An  acceptance  of  miracle,  in 
the  crude  sense  of  arbitrary  intervention  and  special 
providence,  is  appropriate  to  those  who  feel  strangled 
in  the  grip  of  inorganic  and  mechanical  law,  with- 
out being  able  to  reconcile  it  with  the  idea  of  friendly 
guidance  and  intelligent  control.  And  a  denial  of 
miracle,  in  every  sense,  that  is  of  all  providential  lead- 
ing, and  all  controlling  intelligence,  may  be  the  out- 
come of  the  same  kind  of  inability  in  people  of  dif- 
ferent temperament, — people  who  cannot  recognise  a 
directing  intelligence  in  the  midst  of  law  and  order, 
who  regard  the  absence   of   dislocation  and   inter- 


60  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

ference  as  a  mark  of  the  inorganic,  the  mechanical, 
the  inexorable.  Wherefore  the  denial  of  miracle  has 
often  led  to  a  sort  of  practical  atheism  and  to  an  as- 
sertion of  the  valuelessness  of  prayer. 

But  to  those  who  are  able  to  combine  the  acceptance 
of  both  the  above  faiths,  prayer  is  part  of  the  orderly 
cosmos,  and  may  be  an  efficient  portion  of  the  guid- 
ing and  controlling  will ;  somewhat  as  the  desire  of  the 
inhabitants  of  a  town  for  a  civic  improvement  may  be 
a  part  of  the  agency  which  ultimately  brings  it  about, 
no  matter  whether  the  city  be  representatively  or  au- 
tocratically governed. 

The  two  beliefs  cannot  be  logically  and  effectively 
combined  by  those  who  think  of  themselves  as  some- 
thing detached  from  and  outside  the  cosmos,  operat- 
ing on  it  externally  and  seeking  to  modify  its  mani- 
festations by  vain  petitions  addressed  to  a  system  of 
ordered  force.  To  such  persons  the  above  proposi- 
tions must  seem  contradictory  or  mutually  exclusive. 
But  if  we  can  grasp  the  idea  that  we  ourselves  are  an 
intimate  part  of  the  whole  scheme,  that  our  wishes 
and  desires  are  a  part  of  the  controlling  and  guiding 
will, — then  our  mental  action  cannot  but  be  efficient, 
if  we  exercise  it  in  accordance  with  the  highest  and 
truest  laws  of  our  being. 

V.  Miracle  and  Science 

How  mind  can  act  on  matter  at  all  is  at  present  a 
puzzle.  Life  is  clearly  the  intermediary,  and  a  live 
thing  can  perform  actions  and  bring  about  changes  in 
the  material  world  that  cannot  be  predicted  by  me- 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  61 

chanics  and  that  would  not  otherwise  have  occurred. 
There  have  been  many  who  believe  that  such  changes 
affect  the  conservation  of  energy,  and  render  that 
law  doubtful,  unless  life  itself  be  one  of  the  forms 
of  energy.  But  my  contention  is  that  life  is,  from 
the  mechanical  point  of  view,  not  a  force  nor  an 
energy,  but  only  a  guiding  and  directing  influence: 
affecting  the  quantity  of  energy  no  whit.  It  directs 
terrestrial  energy  along  a  certain  channel,  it  utilises 
the  energies  which  are  running  to  waste,  so  to  speak, 
and  guides  them  in  a  specific  way ;  as  a  waterfall  may 
be  made  to  light  a  town  instead  of  merely  dashing 
itself  picturesquely  against  rocks. 

This  subject  of  "guidance"  is  a  large  one,  and  I 
must  be  brief.  I  have  dealt  with  it  in  my  book  on 
Life  and  Matter;  but  it  is  a  point  of  fundamental  im- 
portance, and  I  will  try  to  exhibit  it  still  more  clearly 
and  illustrate  what  I  mean  by  guidance,  namely,  the 
influencing  of  activity  without  "work,"  the  direction 
of  energy  without  generating  it,  the  utilising  and 
guiding  existent  activity  for  preconceived  and  pur- 
posed ends.  To  show  that  work  is  not  necessary  for 
guidance  even  in  mechanics,  we  may  instance  the  fol- 
lowing : 

A  railway  guides  a  train  to  its  destination;  while 
the  engine  supplies  the  energy  and  propels  it.  Any 
force  exerted  by  the  rails  is  perpendicular  to  the  mo- 
tion and  does  no  work;  unless,  indeed,  by  friction  it 
exerts  a  retarding  force  not  perpendicular  to  motion. 

But  if  this  be  used  as  a  parable  it  may  be  objected 
that  the  exertion  of  force  is  itself  a  mechanical  oper- 


62  SCIENCE  AND   FAITH 

ation,  even  though  no  work  is  done;  and  that  a  force 
cannot  act  without  altering  the  distribution  of  mo- 
mentum, though  it  must  leave  the  amount  unaltered. 

Quite  true,  action  and  reaction  are  always  equal 
and  opposite,  and  both  are  always  to  be  found  in  the 
physical  world.  Life  may  call  out  a  stress  in  that 
world  which  would  not  otherwise  exist  then  and 
there ;  but  it  sustains  none  of  the  reaction — never  does 
it  exert  an  unbalanced  force,  never  does  it  generate 
any  momentum — no  more  than  it  generates  energy. 
It  only  directs  operations  which  thoroughly  obey  the 
laws  of  mechanics,  and  from  the  mechanical  point  of 
view  are  complete  in  the  physical  world. 

Life  and  mind  have  determined  where  the  rails 
shall  be  laid  down,  and  when  and  whence  and  whither 
the  trains  are  to  be  run,  but  they  exert  no  iota  of 
force  upon  them;  so  the  distinction  between  a  pro- 
pelling and  a  deflecting  force  is  a  needless  distinction 
for  our  present  purposes.  Whenever  a  force  is  ex- 
erted it  is  exerted  as  a  stress  between  two  bodies, 
whether  it  be  a  working  or  a  guiding  force. 

But,  for  the  kind  of  guidance  exercised  by  life, 
force,  through  a  common  intermediary,  is  not  a  neces- 
sary one.  A  path  can  guide  a  traveller  to  his  destina- 
tion without  exerting  any  force  upon  him  at  all. 
Conversely,  a  railway  time-table,  emanating  from  the 
Traffic  Manager's  office,  determines  the  running  of 
many  trains ;  but  it  is  not  a  form  of  energy,  nor  does 
it  exert  force. 

The  liberation  of  energy  can  be  accomplished  by 
work  entirely  incommensurate  with  the  result :  and  so 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  6$ 

ultimately  it  would  appear  that  it  can  be  achieved  by 
none  at  all,  through  the  mysterious  intervention  of  the 
brain  as  a  connector  between  the  psychical  and  phys- 
ical worlds,  which  otherwise  would  not  be  in  touch. 

All  that  a  human  being  can  do  is  to  get  some  of 
the  energy  from  the  outside  world  into  his  muscles 
by  the  act  of  feeding;  and  when  there  it  is  amenable 
to  nerve  messages  sent  from  his  brain,  and  so  ulti- 
mately from  his  mind, — which  apparently  has  the 
power  of  liberating  detents  and  pulling  triggers  in 
that  strange  physiological  link  with  another  order  of 
existence.  How  the  brain  acts:  how  a  thought  or  an 
act  of  will  can  liberate  the  energy  of  a  brain  cell  in  a 
particular  direction :  is  not  yet  known.  It  belongs  to 
the  mysterious  borderland  between  physics  and  psy- 
chology. We  can  only  appeal  to  the  fact  of  con- 
sciousness, and  illustrate  it  by  saying  that  a  trigger 
can  precipitate  an  explosion,  of  violence  quite  incom- 
mensurable with  that  of  the  energy  required  to  pull 
the  trigger;  and  the  work  done  in  pulling  the  trigger 
results  in  infinitesimal  local  heat,  of  just  the  same 
magnitude  whether  the  prepared  explosion  results  or 
not:  it  is  independent  also  of  the  direction  and  the 
epoch  of  the  shot.  The  aim,  and  the  moment  at  which 
to  pull  the  trigger,  are  determined  by  the  mind  of  the 
sportsman,  without  affecting  the  question  of  energy. 

Life  is  not  energy,  but  it  is  the  director  of  energy, 
and  of  matter.  It  achieves  results  which  would  not 
otherwise  have  occurred.  Even  plant  life  does  that, 
the  green  leaves  direct  the  energy  of  sunshine  to  the 
decomposition    and    re-invigoration    of    thoroughly 


64  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

burned    and    stable    compounds,    carbonic    acid    and 
water. 

Engineering  and  architectural  operations  produce 
Forth  Bridges,  and  tunnels,  and  buildings  of  a  char- 
acter instinct  with  mind  and  purpose.  The  organic 
energy  needed  for  the  operation  is  brought  by  the 
navvies  in  their  tin  cans,  and  they  direct  that  energy 
so  as  to  exert  propulsive  force  and  do  the  work;  but 
the  controlling  mind  is  that  of  the  architect  and  the 
engineer. 

The  only  thing  that  prevents  our  calling  it  a  miracle 
is  that  we  are  so  thoroughly  accustomed  to  the  occur- 
rence. 

Mind  determines.  Life  directs.  The  material  and 
energetic  universe  is  dominated  and  controlled  by 
these  agencies;  which  utilise  the  energy  they  find 
available,  and  direct  it  into  appropriate  channels. 

Finally,  whatever  difficulties  we  may  feel  about 
understanding  the  process,  we  ought  not  to  be  accused 
of  dualism  by  reason  of  our  insistence  on  the  separate 
categories  of  life  and  mind  on  the  one  hand,  and 
body  and  mechanism  on  the  other.  However  domi- 
nant one  of  these  predicaments  may  be  over  the  other, 
they  may  be  all  ultimately  but  parts  of  some  compre- 
hensive whole.  Domination  or  even  antagonism  be- 
tween the  parts  of  a  whole  is  common  enough.  One 
man  can  dominate  or  can  oppose  another,  although 
both  are  members  of  the  same  race,  nation,  or  family. 
The  head  can  dominate  a  limb,  though  both  are  parts 
of  a  single  body.  So  also  can  Mind  and  Life  domi- 
nate and  transcend  matter  and  energy.    And  they  do 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  65 

this  just  as  effectually,  even  though  in  some  ultimate 
monistic  unity  they  can  be  all  recognised  as  parts  or 
aspects  of  some  one  stupendous  Reality. 

VI.  Miracle  and  Religion 

So  much  for  general  considerations,  which  in  this 
case  are  by  far  the  most  important;  we  may  now  de- 
scend to  a  few  practical  remarks.  When  speaking  of 
miracles,  what  people  are  usually  interested  in  are 
miracles  in  detail;  they  have  usually  some  special  in- 
stances in  their  minds,  and  they  want  those  instances 
discussed.  Using  the  term  "miracle"  in  quite  a  popu- 
lar sense,  and  meaning  by  it  nothing  defined  or  sus- 
ceptible of  definition,  but  simply  the  list  of  miracles 
they  find  recorded  in  the  Bible  or  in  the  lives  of  the 
Saints,  they  ask,  "Has  the  progress  of  science  rend- 
ered the  occurrence  of  these  things  more  or  less  prob- 
able?" The  first  and  obvious  answer, — that  it  has 
rendered  them  subjectively  less  probable,  that  is  to 
say,  less  easy  of  acceptance  than  they  were  at  the  time 
of  their  record,  or  even  fifty  years  ago, — is  too  mani- 
fest to  require  giving.  For  till  recently  they  were 
hardly  questioned,  except  here  and  there  by  a  few 
adventurous  spirits  who  were  liable  to  be  stigmatised 
as  "infidel"  for  being  faithful  to  their  convictions. 

But  if  the  subjective  aspect  is  passed  by  as  too  ob- 
vious, and  if  it  is  asked  whether  science  has  made  the 
occurrence  of  the  so-called  miracles  objectively  more 
reasonably  probable, — it  is  controversial,  but  it  is  not 
absurd,  to  answer  concerning  several  of  them — "in 


66  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

some  respects,  yes" : — an  answer  which  is  most  readily 
applicable  to  the  miracles  of  healing.  And  why  ?  Be- 
cause in  modern  medical  practice,  especially  as  devel- 
oped on  the  Continent,  some  of  these  occurrences  can 
be  imitated  to-day;  for  instance,  the  production,  by 
self  or  other  suggestion,  of  wounds  analogous  to  the 
"stigmata."  Whether  this  fact,  assuming  it  for  the 
moment  to  be  a  fact,  is  one  to  be  welcomed  or  other- 
wise by  interpreters  of  Holy  Writ,  is  a  question  for 
themselves  to  answer. 

The  reasonable  scientific  view  is  that  a  complete 
knowledge  of  nature  would  enable  us  to  recognise  the 
rationale  of  every  event  which  ever  occurred,  or  ever 
can  occur;  and  so  it  would  seem  to  follow  concerning 
any  given  apparent  prodigy — either  that  it  did  not 
happen  as  related,  or  else  that  it  happened  in  accord- 
ance with  natural  laws  of  which  at  present  we  are 
more  or  less  ignorant.  Some  of  the  popularly-quoted 
miracles  certainly  did  not  happen,  and  were  never  by 
competent  judges  really  thought  to  have  happened,  as 
narrated  by  the  poet  or  rhapsodist  of  the  time.  To 
regard  the  poetic  suspension  of  the  motion  of  the  sun 
(or  earth)  as  a  scientific  statement  is  absurd.  But 
while  it  is  mere  illiteracy  to  suppose  that  all  classes 
of  recorded  miracle  represent  statements  of  fact — 
since  careful  precision  in  recording  fact  is  a  rather 
modern  accomplishment,  and  not  likely  to  be  regarded 
then,  nor  in  some  quarters  even  now,  as  a  particularly 
desirable  or  edifying  accomplishment,  yet  certain  of 
them  may  be  worthy  of  consideration,  as  at  any  rate 
believed  by  the  recorder  to  have  occurred  as  he  states 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  67 

them;  and,  besides,  as  not  being  wholly  outside  the 
range  of  conceivable  possibility. 

But  in  so  far  as  they  are  recognised  as  reasonably 
possible,  they  surely  lose  their  power  as  specifically 
religious  evidence,  and  become  merely  a  hint  towards 
an  extension  of  scientific  fact.  I  suppose  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  more  natural  and  so  to  speak  com- 
monplace an  event  becomes,  the  less  exceptional  re- 
ligious significance  can  be  accorded  to  it.  Neverthe- 
less it  may  be  legitimate  to  recognise  that  a  human 
being  of  specially  lofty  character  may,  perhaps  inevi- 
tably, be  endowed  with  faculties  and  powers  beyond 
the  present  scope  of  the  race:  faculties  and  powers 
fully  intelligible  neither  to  himself  nor  to  anyone  else. 
Even  a  genius  has  an  inkling  of  exceptional  powers. 
No  one  can  explain,  or  render  ordinarily  probable  a 
priori,  the  existence  of  a  child-prodigy  capable  of  per- 
formances in  music  or  in  arithmetic  beyond  the  power 
of  nearly  all  adults.  Genius  combined  with  sainthood 
may  achieve  what  to  ordinary  men  are  marvels  and 
miracles.  Even  without  sainthood,  and  without 
genius,  some  abnormally  constituted  species  of  the 
human  race — possibly  anticipating  future  develop- 
ment as  a  kind  of  premature  sport,  or  possibly  dis- 
playing the  remains  of  ancestral  powers  now  nearly 
lost  to  the  race — are  found  to  possess  faculties  un- 
usual and  incredible,  faculties  which  in  fact  are  widely 
and  vigorously  disbelieved  by  nearly  all  who  have  not 
studied  them. 

Whether  a  given  prophet  has  extraordinary  power, 
and  how  far  his  power  extends,  is  a  matter  for  evi- 


68  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

dence;  but  whatever  his  power,  it  is  by  the  content  of 
his  message  that  he  is  to  be  judged,  not  by  some  ac- 
companying extension  of  the  customary  control  of 
mind  over  matter.  All  this  is  well-worn  ground,  and 
I  refrain  from  emphasising  a  great  number  of  obvious 
contentions,  e.g.,  that  it  is  quite  wrong  to  accept  a  bad 
and  immoral  message  because  it  is  accompanied  by 
conjuring  tricks  of  amazing  ingenuity;  and  the  like. 
The  worst  of  men  can  do  things  beyond  the  power  of 
an  insect,  things  which  to  its  consciousness,  if  it  had 
any,  would  be  miraculous. 

Either  there  are  modes  of  existence  higher  than 
that  displayed  by  our  ordinary  selves,  or  there  are  not. 
If  there  are,  it  is  the  business  of  science  to  ascertain 
their  existence  and  what  they  can  do  in  the  way  of 
interaction  with  our  material  surroundings:  it  is  not 
necessarily  the  business  of  religion  at  all,  though  like 
everything  else  it  will  have  a  bearing  on  religion. 
But,  because  it  is  a  nascent  and  infantile  branch  of 
science,  is  it  therefore  of  little  importance  or  small 
interest?  By  no  means.  All  these  things  are  essen- 
tially worthy  of  investigation,  and  they  will  be  in- 
vestigated by  those  who  feel  called  to  the  work, 
although  they  are  looked  at  askance  by  some  of  the 
scientific  magnates  of  to-day.  The  gain  of  realising 
that  they  are  unessential  to  religion  and  to  human 
hopes  and  fears,  is  that  their  investigation  can  be 
conducted  in  a  cool  calm  spirit,  without  prejudice 
and  without  preconception,  with  no  object  in  view 
but  simple  ascertainment  of  truth.  The  atmosphere 
of  religion  should  be  recognised  as  enveloping  and 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  69 

permeating  everything,  and  should  not  be  specially 
or  exclusively  sought  as  an  emanation  from  signs  and 
wonders. 

Strange  and  ultranormal  things  may  happen,  and 
are  well  worthy  of  study,  but  they  are  not  to  be  re- 
garded as  especially  holy.  Some  of  them  may  repre- 
sent either  extension  or  survival  of  human  faculty, 
while  others  may  be  an  inevitable  endowment  or  at- 
tribute of  a  sufficiently  lofty  character;  but  none  of 
them  can  be  accepted  without  investigation.  Testi- 
mony concerning  such  things  is  to  be  treated  in  a 
sceptical  and  yet  open-minded  spirit;  the  results  of 
theory  and  experiment  are  to  be  utilised,  as  in  any 
other  branch  of  natural  knowledge;  and  indiscrim- 
inate dogmatic  rejection  is  as  inappropriate  as  whole- 
sale uncritical  acceptance. 

The  bearing  on  the  hopes  and  fears  of  humanity 
of  such  unusual  facts  as  can  be  verified  may  be  con- 
siderable, but  they  bear  no  exceptional  witness  to 
guidance  and  control.  Guidance  and  control,  if  ad- 
mitted at  all,  must  be  regarded  as  constant  and  con- 
tinuous; and  it  is  just  this  uniform  character  that 
makes  them  so  difficult  to  recognise.  It  is  always 
difficult  to  perceive  or  apprehend  anything  which  is 
perfectly  regular  and  continuous.  Those  fish,  for 
instance,  which  are  submerged  in  ocean-depths,  be- 
yond the  reach  of  waves  and  tides,  are  probably 
utterly  unconscious  of  the  existence  of  water;  and, 
however  intelligent,  they  can  have  but  little  reason 
to  believe  in  that  medium,  notwithstanding  that  their 


70  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

whole  being,  life,  and  motion,  is  dependent  upon  it 
from  instant  to  instant.  The  motion  of  the  earth, 
again,  furious  rush  though  it  is — fifty  times  faster 
than  a  cannon  ball — is  quite  inappreciable  to  our 
senses;  it  has  to  be  inferred  from  celestial  observa- 
tions, and  it  was  strenuously  disbelieved  by  the  ag- 
nostics of  an  earlier  day. 

Uniformity  is  always  difficult  to  grasp — our  senses 
are  not  made  for  it;  and  yet  it  is  characteristic  of 
everything  that  is  most  efficient.  Jerks  and  jolts  are 
easy  to  appreciate,  but  they  do  not  conduce  to  prog- 
ress. Steady  motion  is  what  conveys  us  on  our  way, 
collisions  are  but  a  retarding  influence.  The  seeker 
after  miracle,  in  the  exceptional  and  narrow  or  exclu- 
sive sense,  is  pining  for  a  catastrophe ;  the  investigator 
of  miracle,  in  the  continuous  and  broad  or  compre- 
hensive sense,  has  the  universe  for  a  laboratory. 

VII.  Human  Experience 

Let  us  survey  our  position. 

We  find  ourselves  for  a  few  score  years  incarnate 
intelligences  on  this  planet;  we  have  not  always  been 
here,  and  we  shall  not  always  be  here:  we  are  here  in 
fact,  each  of  us,  for  but  a  very  short  period;  but  we 
can  study  the  conditions  of  existence  while  here,  and 
we  perceive  clearly  that  a  certain  amount  of  guidance 
and  control  are  in  our  hands.  For  better  for  worse 
we  can,  and  our  legislators  do,  influence  the  destinies 
of  the  planet.  The  process  is  called  "making  his- 
tory."   We  can  all,  even  the  humblest,  to  some  extent 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  71 

influence  the  destinies  of  individuals  with  whom  we 
come  into  contact.  We  have  therefore  a  certain  sense 
of  power  and  responsibility. 

It  is  not  likely  that  we  are  the  only,  or  the  highest, 
intelligent  agents  in  the  whole  wide  universe,  nor 
that  we  possess  faculties  and  powers  denied  to  all 
else;  nor  is  it  likely  that  our  own  activity  will  be 
always  as  limited  as  it  is  now.  The  Parable  of  the 
Talents  is  full  of  meaning,  and  it  contains  a  meaning 
that  is  not  often  brought  out. 

It  is  absurd  to  deny  the  attributes  of  guidance  and 
intelligence  and  personality  and  love  to  the  Whole, 
seeing  that  we  are  part  of  the  Whole,  and  are  per- 
sonally aware  of  what  we  mean  by  those  words  in 
ourselves.  These  attributes  are  existent  therefore, 
and  cannot  be  denied;  cannot  be  denied  even  to  the 
Deity. 

Is  the  planet  subject  to  intelligent  control?  We 
know  that  it  is:  we  ourselves  can  change  the  course 
of  rivers  for  predestined  ends,  we  can  make  highways, 
can  unite  oceans,  can  devise  inventions,  can  make 
new  compounds,  can  transmute  species,  can  plan 
fresh  variety  of  organic  life;  we  can  create  works  of 
art;  we  can  embody  new  ideas  and  lofty  emotions  in 
forms  of  language  and  music,  and  can  leave  them  as 
Platonic  offspring 1  to  remote  posterity.  Our  power 
is  doubtless  limited,  but  we  can  surely  learn  to  do 
far  more  than  we  have  yet  so  far  in  the  infancy  of 
humanity  accomplished;  more  even  than  we  have  yet 
conjectured  as  within  the  range  of  possibility. 

1  Symposium,  209. 


72  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

Our  progress  already  has  been  considerable.  It  is 
but  a  moderate  time  since  our  greatest  men  were  chip- 
ping flints  and  carving  bones  into  the  likeness  of 
reindeer.  More  recently  they  became  able  to  build 
cathedrals  and  make  poems.  Now  we  are  momenta- 
rily diverted  from  immortal  pursuits  by  vivid  interest 
in  that  kind  of  competition  which  has  replaced  the 
competition  of  the  sword,  and  by  those  extraordinary 
inequalities  of  possession  and  privilege  which  have 
resulted  from  the  invention  of  an  indestructible  and 
transmissible  form  of  riches,  a  form  over  which 
neither  moth  nor  rust  has  any  power.  We  raise  an 
increase  of  smoke,  and  offer  sacrifices  of  squalor 
and  ugliness,  in  worship  of  this  new  idol.  But  it  will 
pass ;  human  life  is  not  meant  to  continue  as  it  is  now 
in  city  slums ;  nor  is  the  strenuous  futility  of  mere  ac- 
cumulation likely  to  satisfy  people  when  once  they 
have  been  really  educated;  the  world  is  beautiful,  and 
may  be  far  more  widely  happy  than  it  has  been  yet. 
Those  wTho  have  preached  this  hitherto  have  been 
heard  with  deaf  ears,  but  some  day  we  shall  awake  to 
a  sense  of  our  true  planetary  importance  and  shall 
recognise  the  higher  possibilities  of  existence.  Then 
shall  we  realise  and  practically  believe  what  is  in- 
volved in  those  words  of  poetic  insight: 

The  heaven,  even  the  heavens  are  the  Lord's:  but  the  earth  hath 
He  given  to  the  children  of  men. 

There  is  a  vast  truth  in  this  yet  to  be  discovered; 
power  and  influence  and  responsibility  lie  before  us, 
appalling  in  their  magnitude,  and  as  yet  we  are  but 


RELIGION,  SCIENCE  AND  MIRACLE  73 

children  playing  on  the  stage  before  the  curtain  is 
rolled  up  for  the  drama  in  which  we  are  to  take  part, 

But  we  are  not  left  to  our  own  devices:  we  of  this 
living  generation  are  not  alone  in  the  universe.  What 
we  call  the  individual  is  strengthened  by  elements 
emerging  from  the  social  whole  out  of  which  he  is 
born.  We  are  not  things  of  yesterday,  nor  of  to- 
morrow. We  do  not  indeed  remember  our  past,  we 
are  not  aware  of  our  future,  but  in  common  with 
everything  else  we  must  have  had  a  past  and  must  be 
going  to  have  a  future.  Some  day  we  may  find  our- 
selves able  to  realise  both. 

Meanwhile,  what  has  been  our  experience  here? 
We  have  not  been  left  solitary.  Every  newcomer  to 
the  planet,  however  helpless  and  strange  he  be,  finds 
friends  awaiting  him,  devoted  and  self-sacrificing 
friends,  eager  to  care  for  and  protect  his  infancy  and 
to  train  him  in  the  ways  of  this  curious  world.  It  is 
typical  of  what  goes  on  throughout  conscious  exist- 
ence; the  guidance  which  we  exert,  and  to  which  we 
are  subject  now,  is  but  a  phase  of  something  running 
through  the  universe.  And  when  the  time  comes  for 
us  to  quit  this  sphere  and  enter  some  larger  field  of 
action,  I  doubt  not  that  we  shall  find  there  also  that 
kindness  and  help  and  patience  and  love,  without 
which  no  existence  would  be  tolerable  or  even  at  some 
stages  possible. 

Miracles  he  all  around  us :  only  they  are  not  mirac- 
ulous. Special  providences  envelop  us :  only  they  are 
not  special.  Prayer  is  a  means  of  communication  as 
natural  and  as  simple  as  is  speech. 


74  SCIENCE  AND  FAITH 

Realise  that  you  are  part  of  a  great  orderly  and 
mutually  helpful  cosmos,  that  you  are  not  stranded 
or  isolated  in  a  foreign  universe,  but  that  you  are  part 
of  it  and  closely  akin  to  it ;  and  your  sense  of  sympa- 
thy will  be. enlarged,  your  power  of  free  communica- 
tion will  be  opened,  and  the  heartfelt  aspiration  and 
communion  and  petition  that  we  call  prayer  will  come 
as  easily  and  as  naturally  as  converse  with  those 
human  friends  and  relations  whose  visible  bodily  pres- 
ence gladdens  and  enriches  your  present  life. 


SECTION      II— CORPORATE      WORSHIP 

AND  SERVICE 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ALLEGED   INDIFFERENCE  OF  LAYMEN 

TO  RELIGION 

THE  average  layman  of  the  present  day  is  often 
accused  of  being  indifferent  to  religion.  But 
the  allegation  as  worded  seems  to  me  untrue,  unless 
by  "laymen"  is  understood  the  great  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple. Even  then  I  doubt  if  they  are  indifferent  to 
real  religion,  or  to  reality  and  sincerity  and  lofty- 
mindedness  of  any  kind.  No  one  can  be  really  in- 
different to  the  great  problem  of  existence —  the  mys- 
teries of  life  and  death  and  of  human  destiny.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  people  in  general  can  be  considered 
indifferent  even  to  theology,  of  a  sort, — not  to  prob- 
lems connected  with  apparent  oppositions  between 
knowledge  and  faith,  for  instance,  nor  to  questions 
of  Biblical  interpretation  and  the  nature  of  Inspira- 
tion. They  are  not  unopen  to  the  influence  of  a 
saintly  life,  or  disposed  to  treat  lightly  such  funda- 
mental subjects  as  the  existence  of  Deity  and  the  rela- 
tions between  man  and  God. 

I  gather  that  they  are  not  indifferent  in  this  coun- 
try to  these  topics,  because  they  seem  always  willing 
to  read  about  them  or  to  discuss  them.  And  if  this 
refers  chiefly  to  the  more  educated  classes,  it  may  be 
maintained  on  behalf  of  the  masses  that  their  ap- 
parently perennial  excitement  about  what  doctrines 

77 


78  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

shall  be  taught  to  small  children,  though  it  may  lack 
lucidity,  seems  to  argue  anything  but  indifference. 

In  Germany  and  France,  so  far  as  I  can  judge, 
people  in  general  do  not  care  in  the  same  way  to  dis- 
cuss religious  questions,  and  theological  magazines 
are  confined  to  specialists ;  there  is  little  or  nothing  of 
general  interest  and  wide  circulation  on  the  subject. 
In  those  countries  minds  seems  closed,  either  in  the 
positive  or  in  the  negative  direction,  as  regards  re- 
ligious beliefs.  But  here  it  is  otherwise,  and  I  have 
heard  it  maintained  at  a  discussion  society  that  there 
was  really  nothing  except  religion  and  politics  which 
was  worth  the  trouble  of  getting  excited  about. 

Nevertheless  there  is  a  sense  in  which  people  in  this 
country  are  indifferent  to  something  allied  to  religion 
— at  any  rate  to  its  outward  and  visible  manifesta- 
tions. To  Ecclesiasticism  they  are  indifferent,  and 
they  do  not  in  any  great  number  go  to  church.  I  take 
the  allegation  which  is  here  being  dealt  with  to  intend 
to  ask  the  question,  Why  is  this?  Why  have  the  out- 
ward and  visible  forms  of  religion  lost  hold  *  of  both 
educated  and  uneducated  people? 

I  believe  that  over-pressure  is  one  answer — a  gen- 
eral sense  of  the  shortness  of  life  and  the  immense 
amount  there  is  to  be  done  in  it.  This  holds  true 
whether  the  press  of  occupation  is  caused  by  the  de- 
mands of  pleasure,  or  of  business,  or  of  investigation, 

1 1  say  "lost"  hold,  because  I  suppose  I  may  assume,  from  the  churches 
which  they  erected,  as  well  as  from  the  example  of  truly  Roman  Catholic 
countries  at  the  present  day,  that,  in  say  the  twelfth  century,  observance 
of  the  outward  forms  of  religion  once  really  had  a  firm  grasp  of  tho 
majority  of  Englishmen. 


INDIFFERENCE  OF  LAYMEN  TO  RELIGION     79 

or  of  work  for  the  public  weal.  In  each  case  time  is 
all  too  short  for  what  can  now  be  crowded  into  it.  As 
soon  as  our  faculties  are  well  developed,  and  our  in- 
fluence fairly  active,  it  is  almost  time  to  begin  to 
think  of  being  called  to  service  elsewhere, — there  is 
no  leisure  to  expend  in  unprofitable  directions. 

Is  going  to  church  unprofitable,  then?  To  some 
men  often  yes;  to  others,  I  suppose,  always  no:  save 
in  the  sense  that  they  have  not  profited  by  it.  Perhaps 
to  none  is  it  quite  unprofitable,  but  they  may  think  it 
so.  If  it  acted  as  a  stimulus  and  an  inspiration  and  a 
help  to  life,  then  surely  people  in  general  would  not 
be  so  foolish  as  to  be  indifferent  to  it.  But  they  may 
be  mistaken ;  this  is  the  age  of  strenuousness  and  high 
pressure,  and  it  may  be  that  a  quiet  two  hours  of 
peaceful  meditation  would  be  the  very  best  sedative 
and  rest-cure  for  many  men  whose  activities  are  wear- 
ing them  out.  Some,  and  those  the  most  strenuous 
of  all,  have  found  it  so.  Mr.  Gladstone,  for  instance, 
was  a  studious  attendant  at  public  worship,  and  I 
should  not  be  surprised  to  hear  that  the  German  Em- 
peror and  President  Roosevelt  are  so  likewise;  possi- 
bly in  their  case  partly  as  an  example,  but  also  quite 
possibly  as  a  private  solace. 

One  cannot  but  admire  men,  to  whom  every  five 
minutes  is  of  value,  who  thus  give  up  large  tracts  of 
time  to  religious  exercises ;  and  it  is  possible  that  many 
active  men  who  ignore  this  help  would  be  the  better 
in  every  way  if  they  too  submitted  themselves  to  the 
same  discipline.  It  may  be  one  of  those  cases  where 
more  haste  is  the  less  speed,  and  where  the  public  as- 


80  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

sembling  of  ourselves  together  in  a  reverent  and  wor- 
shipful spirit  would  be  a  real  contribution  to  vitality 
and  power.  Under  certain  conditions  I  feel  sure  that 
it  would  be  so,  but  is  it  so  under  present  conditions? 
The  answer  must  depend  partly  on  individual  tem- 
perament, partly  on  the  form  of  "service"  available. 

We  must  all  be  acquainted  with  the  soothed  and 
sympathetic  feeling  which  is  sometimes  the  result  of 
attendance  at  a  place  of  worship  in  company  with 
others,  even  if  nothing  particular  has  been  said  worth 
carrying  away :  this  is  felt  especially  if  the  occasion  is 
a  symbolic  one — a  national  thanksgiving,  for  instance, 
a  demonstration  of  religious  feeling  by  members  of  a 
scientific  body,  or  other  occasion  of  that  kind;  but  if 
it  is  a  mere  everyday  or  weekly  service,  there  must  be 
some  special  harmony  or  congruity  between  the  as- 
sembly and  the  words  that  have  been  said,  or  the 
ceremonies  that  have  been  performed,  in  order  that 
the  effect  may  be  produced. 

There  appear  to  be  some  ecclesiastically  minded 
persons  who  can  derive  sustenance  from  what  to 
others  may  seem  extraordinarily  commonplace,  or 
even  childish,  proceedings.  I  have  seen  Mr.  Glad- 
stone (the  name  of  so  great  a  man  may  be  employed 
as  illustration  without  impertinence)  in  an  attitude 
of  rapt  and  earnest  attention, — not  to  the  words  of 
the  Bible,  which  anyone  might  be  glad  to  hear,  nor 
to  the  words  of  the  Praver  Book,  which  to  those  with 
a  strongly-developed  historic  sense  may  carry  with 
them  a  world  of  half- felt  emotion — but  to  the  utter- 
ance from  the  pulpit  of  a  very  ordinary  discourse. 


INDIFFERENCE  OF  LAYMEN  TO  RELIGION      81 


T?*  most  of  us,  however,  this  patient  self -contribution 
to  what  is  going  on  is  denied;  and  the  feeling  with 
which  some  go  away  from  an  average  place  of  wor- 
ship is  too  often  a  feeling  of  irritation  and  regret  for 
wasted  time. 

I  have  known  men  of  energy  supply  the  needed 
intellectual  exercise,  and  contrive  to  stimulate  their 
historic  sense,  by  using  a  Latin  Prayer  Book  and  a 
Greek  Testament ;  and  something  of  the  sort  is  sorely 
needed  if  one  is  to  attempt  to  keep  one's  attention 
fixed  on  the  ancient  formularies,  so  familiar  from 
childhood,  and  recited  or  chanted  in  so  meaningless  a 
manner. 

The  greater  number  of  men,  I  believe,  cultivate 
the  habit  of  inattention  during  the  greater  part  of 
the  proceedings;  and  it  is  possible,  though  less  easy, 
to  preserve  an  attitude  of  mental  inattention  even 
when  reciting  formularies  with  the  lips.  To  attend 
strenuously  to  the  meaning  of  the  clauses,  in  a  creed, 
for  instance,  or  even  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  is  an  effort. 
I  do  not  believe  it  is  often  made.  The  words  are 
slipped  through,  and  if  an  idea  is  caught  every  now 
and  again,  that  is  all  that  can  be  expected.  There 
was  a  time  when  this  inattentive  recital  of  the  well- 
known  and  familiar  could  be  tolerated ;  and  before  the 
days  of  education  it  was  probably  useful.  To  some  it 
may  be  useful  still — to  others  it  is  tedious.  The  fact 
is,  the  conventional  English  Church  Service,  or  eclec- 
tic admixture  of  combined  services,  is  too  long,  and, 
as  I  think,  too  mechanical.  The  Psalter  as  a  whole 
is  oppressively  tedious — I  speak  for  myself;  many 


82  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

of  the  chants  one  is  weary  of.  The  jewels  would 
shine  out  more  brightly  if  re-set.  Some  of  the  pray- 
ers are  beautiful,  or  would  be  if  they  were  properly 
read  and  were  not  spoiled  by  such  frequent  iteration. 
The  little  song  at  the  end  of  each  commandment  is 
gorgeous  when  one  hears  it  in  the  Elijah,,  but  it  gets 
tiresome  at  the  ninth  repetition.  The  "Confession" 
is  historically  interesting  and  sometimes  perhaps  ap- 
propriate, but  as  a  rule  it  is  excessive  and  unreal ;  and 
if  ever  true,  it  is  not  a  thing  one  wishes  to  sing  in 
public,  nor  indeed  to  sing  at  all,  still  less  to  pay  a  few 
illiterate  boys  and  men  to  sing  or  monotone  for  one. 

The  Te  T>eum3  on  a  national  occasion,  and  sung 
slowly  and  emphatically,  may  be  magnificent:  as  or- 
dinarily treated  it  is  almost  useless,  and  seems  only 
inserted  as  a  convenient  break  between  the  Lessons; 
save  occasionally  when  the  setting  and  singing  are 
specially  good,  in  which  case  it  can  be  enjoyed  as  an 
oratorio  is  enjoyed. 

Some  people  may  be  able  to  utilise  parts  of  the 
service  which  to  others  are  tedious,  and  it  may  be  con- 
tended that  there  is  something  for  everybody;  but 
for  most  people  there  must  be  long  spells  of  dulness. 

Length,  however,  is  not  the  only  objection:  rapid- 
ity, which  is  perhaps  a  consequence  of  length,  is  an- 
other. Constantly  and  rapidly  repeated  formularies 
must  surely  tend  to  become  mechanical.  We  jeer  at 
the  Thibetan  water-worked  praying-wheel  as  a 
mechanical  form  of  prayer;  and  yet  I  can  imagine  a 
peasant  joyfully  going  on  with  his  labour  in  the 
fields,  in  the  consciousness  that  his  prayer  was  being 


INDIFFERENCE  OF  LAYMEN  TO  RELIGION      83 

periodically  turned  up  to  heaven  by  the  forces  of 
nature,  and  his  soul  might  send  an  aspiration  after  it, 
without  interfering  with  the  industry  of  his  body.  I 
doubt  if  such  a  ritual  is  really  more  mechanical  than 
some  English  services  which  I  have  attended.  I  know 
well  that  any  liturgy — the  bleakest  as  well  as  the  most 
ornate — can  elevate  the  soul  of  the  truly  pious;  but 
this  minority  cannot  be  included  among  the  laity  of 
whom  indifference  to  religion  is  even  alleged. 

As  to  the  recital  of  a  few  incredible  articles  in 
the  creeds,  I  say  nothing :  they  are  not  numerous,  and 
hardly  act  as  a  strong  deterrent  except  to  a  few  ear- 
nest souls;  if  there  were  reality  about  the  procedure, 
some  of  the  clauses  would  be  repellent,  but  as  it  is, 
the  so-called  Athanasian  hymn  can  be  chanted 
through  with  the  rest:  it  is  an  interesting  glimpse 
into  an  ingenious  mediaeval  mind,  to  whom  all  the 
mystery  of  Divinity  was  expressible  in  words,  with 
great  positiveness  of  assurance,  and  with  arithmetical 
precision  of  specification.  But  so  far  as  the  Creeds 
and  the  Articles  contain  things  to  which  we  and  our 
teachers,  the  beneficed  clergy,  are  expected  to  adhere, 
they  may  be  to  some  extent  deterrent ;  and  it  must  be 
admitted  that  they  require  a  good  deal  of  explana- 
tion, and  in  manner  of  expression  are  rather  out  of 
date. 

With  all  the  enthusiasm  for  religion  in  the  world, 
I  would  say  to  professional  Churchmen,  you  realty 
cannot  continue  to  expect  people  to  wade  continually 
through  so  much  mediaeval  and  ecclesiastical  lore. 
You  must  free  the  ship  of  official  religion  from  in- 


84  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

crustation:  it  is  water-logged  and  overburdened  now, 
and  its  sails  are  patched  and  outworn.  I  do  not  ask 
you  to  use  steam  or  any  new-fangled  mode  of  pro- 
pulsion. By  all  means  keep  your  attachment  to  the 
past,  but  study  reality  and  sincerity;  strive  to  say 
what  you  really  mean,  and  to  say  it  in  such  way  that 
others  may  know  that  you  mean  it,  and  may  feel  that 
they  mean  it  too.  The  American  Church  has  modi- 
fied some  of  the  features  characteristic  of  the  Angli- 
can Liturgy;  and  its  authorised  Prayer  Book  contains 
interesting  minor  variations;  all  of  which  are  devised 
in  the  interests  of  elasticity  and  freedom,  yet  subject 
to  a  commendable  spirit  of  conservatism. 

I  trust  that  it  is  not  an  inseparable  concomitant  of 
a  State  religion  that  petitions  should  be  tied  and 
bound  in  rigid  forms,  that  no  audible  prayer  can  be 
uttered  except  what  is  printed  and  authorised;  it  is 
pitiful  when  the  only  initiation  permitted,  even  at 
times  of  stress,  lies  in  the  emphasis  which  may  be 
thrown  upon  certain  words,  and  the  pauses  that  may 
be  made  after  them.  But  at  least  the  sermon  is  free. 
So  let  preachers  realise  their  opportunities  and  make 
use  of  them,  and  let  them  no  longer  throw  away  their 
chance  of  moving  the  hearts  of  men  towards  a  higher 
and  more  useful  and  unselfish  life,  by  over-attention 
to  the  conventional  arrangement  called  the  Church's 
Year.  The  annual  commemoration  of  everything  is 
often  made  an  excuse  for  laziness:  it  saves  the  trou- 
ble of  choosing  a  subject.  It  provides  a  hackneyed 
theme  ready  to  hand,  to  be  treated  in  a  conventional 


INDIFFERENCE  OF  LAYMEN  TO  RELIGION      85 

and  hackneyed  manner.     Silently  and  patiently  the 
people  sit  there,  and  are  not  fed. 

Religion  is  one  thing;  Church  services  as  often 
conducted  are  quite  another  thing.  Modification 
will  be  resented  and  opposed  by  some  singularly 
minded  lay  Churchmen;  nevertheless,  if  more  eminent 
ability  is  to  be  attracted  to  the  service  of  the  Church, 
if  the  great  body  of  the  laity  are  to  be  reached  in  any 
serious  and  effective  manner,  modifications,  excisions, 
and  reforms  are  necessary.  It  is  not  religion  to  which 
people  are  indifferent. 


CHAPTER  V 
UNION  AND  BREADTH 

A  Plea  for  Essential  Unity  Amid  Formal  Dif- 
ference in  a  National  Church 

"The  true  tragedy  is  a  conflict  of  right  with  right,  not  of  right  with 
wrong." — Hegel. 

1SOON  became  aware  that  my  little  book  called 
The  Substance  of  Faith  could  hardly  be  re- 
garded as  an  eirenicon  in  respect  of  the  present  Eng- 
lish Education  controversy,  though  I  began  it  some- 
what with  that  hope,  and  still  think  that  it  should  be 
of  some  assistance  in  that  direction ;  for  it  is  apparent 
that  the  dispute  between  Church  and  Dissent  is  not 
only  of  long  standing  historically,  but  is  intrinsically 
deepseated.  It  would  be  worth  a  considerable  effort 
if  the  inflammation  due  to  that  chronic  sore  could  be 
reduced;  but  the  cure  should  be  attempted,  not  by 
blinking  or  denying  the  reality  of  the  differences,  but 
rather  by  facing  them  resolutely  and  understanding 
their  nature  and  origin  before  seeking  to  prescribe  a 
remedy. 

The  dispute  which  is  most  alive  to-day  between 
State  Church  and  Free  Churches  is  not  exactly  re- 
ligious :  it  seems  to  be  rather  ethnological  or  anthropo- 
logical. That  is  to  say,  it  may  be  held  to  represent  a 
difference  inherent  in  the  varied  nature  of  humanity, 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  87 

and  to  correspond  to  the  divergent  views  taken  of  re- 
ligion by  two  different  types  of  mind.  If  there  is 
any  truth  in  this  statement,  it  ought  surely  to  be  pos- 
sible to  recognise  the  fact,  and  to  adjust  our  arrange- 
ments to  it,  as  to  any  other  of  the  facts  of  nature. 

It  must  have  been  frequently  pointed  out  before 
— but  sometimes  statements  bear  and  need  repetition 
— that  there  are  two  chief  religious  types:  one  type 
valuing  ceremony  and  artistic  accessories  and  human 
organisation  and  intervention;  while  the  other, 
thinking  itself  competent  to  dispense  with  what  it 
may  consider  adventitious  aids,  seeks  to  worship, 
neither  in  temple  nor  even  in  mountain,  but  directly 
in  spirit  and  in  truth.  This  one  thinks  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  equally  accessible  to  every  individual.  That 
one  conceives  that  a  Special  Power  is  miraculously 
transmitted  by  ceremonial  means,  namely,  by  the  im- 
position of  hands. 

Those  who  take  this  which  may  be  called  the  Apos- 
tolic view,  necessarily  exalt  the  Church,  which  to  them 
is  God's  vicegerent  upon  earth;  for  its  priests  possess 
a  power  denied  not  only  to  laymen  but  to  ministers 
of  all  other  denominations,  who  in  this  essential  re- 
spect are  and  must  be  regarded  as  laymen.  It  is  true 
that  the  branches  of  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Church  do  not  agree  among  themselves  entirely  as  to 
the  authentic  channels  of  this  mysterious  influence. 
To  the  Roman,  the  Anglican  Catholic  is  a  layman, 
even  though  he  be  a  prelate.1     To  the  Anglican,  the 

i  The  question  of  the  recognition  or  non-recognition  of  Anglican  Or- 


88  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

President  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference,  or  the  Mod- 
erator of  the  Presbyterian  Synod,  may  be  in  friend- 
ship a  brother,  and  in  good  works  a  helper,  but  he  has 
no  claim  to  recognition  as  a  priest:  nor,  indeed,  does 
he  prefer  such  a  claim,  because  he  does  not  belong  to 
the  type  which  appreciates  the  idea  of  Divine  influ- 
ence ceremonially  conveyed  from  one  human  being 
to  another. 

But  the  distinction  of  type  is  not  confined  to  the 
clergy :  it  runs  through  the  laity  likewise.  Those  who 
believe  in  the  special  and  exclusive  character  of  eccle- 
siastical priesthood  are  bound  to  venerate  the  Officers 
invested  with  those  powers,  and  to  submit  to  their 
teaching  and  influence,  irrespective  of  their  person- 
ality; for  they  can  not  only  help  and  strengthen  you 
by  administration  of  the  Sacraments:  they  actually 
have  the  power  of  forgiving  your  sins, — or,  still  more 
remarkable,  of  preventing  the  forgiveness  of  your 
sins,  if  they  be  so  minded. 

Baptismal  regeneration  is  only  one  of  the  things 
which  can  be  effected  through  their  agency,  but  that 
too  is  a  power  of  great  magnitude,  and  if  your  child 
is  to  be  eternally  lost  without  their  aid  their  aid  must 
be  sought ;  for  in  this  ceremony  he  is  made,  according 
to  the  Catechism — not  recognised  only  and  admitted 
into  the  Church  as  such,  but  actually  made — a  child 
of  God,  and  an  inheritor  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.1 

ders  is  sometimes  said  to  have  been  decided  like  a  move  in  a  game  or 
in  party  polities — after  private  discussion  as  to  which  course  was  best 
calculated  to  benefit  one  side  and  to  damage  the  other.  The  subject  ap- 
pears to  be  eminently  fitted  for  such  treatment. 

i  The  preposition  "  in "  is  used  in  the  Catechism,  but  "by"  occurs  in 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  89 

True,  they  must  be  regarded  only  as  instruments 
and  vehicles  of  Divine  mercy ;  but  in  so  far  as  Divine 
mercy  is  felt  to  be  a  vital  thing,  the  channels  by  which 
it  is  dispensed  become  of  overwhelming  interest;  and 
if  they,  as  Officers  of  a  corporate  and  divinely  or- 
dained Church,  really  have  in  any  sense  a  monopoly 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  their  unfolding  of  the  Bible  may 
be  the  only  explication  religiously  permissible. 

It  is  only  those  who  have  no  belief  in  the  reality  of 
priestly  powers  of  this  kind — people  to  whom  such 
powers  seem  like  superstition,  who  prefer  to  worry 
out  truth  for  themselves,  and  who  pray  directly  to  the 
Fountain  of  Infinite  Wisdom  to  keep  them  from 
being  deceived  and  to  lead  them  into  the  way  of  truth 
— it  is  only  these  who  can  afford  to  dispense  with,  or 
in  some  cases  even  to  resent,  the  good  offices  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  whether  in  its  Greek  or  Roman  or 
Anglican  branches. 

If  now  we  bethink  ourselves  what  is  it  that  con- 
stitutes the  essential  difference  of  type,  I  think  we 
shall  find  that  we  must  admit  as  the  most  distinctive 
feature  of  the  Prayer  Book,  from  the  denominational 
and  ultra-protestant  point  of  view,  not  the  ordinary 
popular  services  of  Matins  and  Evensong,  nor  the 
still  more  beautiful  form  for  Holy  Communion,  but 
the  regulation  for  the  Ordering  of  Priests.  The 
greater  part  of  that  service  may  be  passed  as  unde- 
nominational, save  that  naturally  it  seems  intended 
expressly  to  sever  the  Anglican  from  the  Roman 

one  form  of  the  baptismal  service:    "Seeing  now    .     .     .     that  this  child 
is  by  baptism  regenerate." 


90  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

priesthood,  but  the  official  sentence  which  accompanies 
the  laying  on  of  hands  is  distinctly  and  purposely 
hierarchical.  Those  who  accept  that  are  Churchmen; 
those  who  rejoice  at  it  are  high- Churchmen.  All 
other  details  sink  into  insignificance  before  this  Epis- 
copal pronouncement : 

"Receive  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  office  and  work  of 
a  priest  in  the  Church  of  God,  now  committed  unto 
thee  by  the  Imposition  of  our  hands.  Whose  sins 
thou  dost  forgive,  they  are  forgiven;  and  whose  sins 
thou  dost  retain,  they  are  retained." 

This  has  been  said  ceremonially  to  every  Anglican 
parish  priest  in  the  British  Isles,  some  of  whom  doubt- 
less believe  that  a  mysterious  efficacy  has  descended 
upon  them,  and  that  they  possess  the  awful  power 
thus  conferred. 

That  being  so,  it  should  be,  and  probably  is,  clear 
to  any  contending  and  opposing  party  that  priests 
so  consecrated,  and  animated  by  such  beliefs,  cannot 
possibly  consent  to  open  their  schools  to  dissenters: 
it  would  be  more  reasonable  for  doctors  to  open  the 
hospitals  to  quacks.  They  are  bound  to  insist  on 
their  high  prerogative,  and  to  teach  children  to  come 
to  them  for  the  sacramental  and  other  inspired  influ- 
ences which  they  can  bestow  on  the  penitent  and  the 
faithful,  or  be  false  to  their  trust.1    And  conversely, 

i  "Experience  has  shown  the  inefficacy  of  the  mere  injunctions  of 
Church  order,  however  scripturally  enforced,  in  restraining  from  schism 
the  awakened  and  anxious  sinner;  who  goes  to  a  dissenting  preacher 
'because  (as  he  expresses  it)  he  gets  good  from  him':  and  though  he 
does  not  stand  excused  in  God's  sight  for  yielding  to  the  temptation, 
surely  the  ministers  of  the  Church  are  not  blameless  if,  by  keeping  back 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  91 

those  who  stoutly  deny  and  conscientiously  resent  the 
idea  of  any  such  special  privileges — who  quote  in  op- 
position, for  instance,  1  Cor.  i.  17 — may  feel  bound 
to  express  their  views  also,  and  may  earnestly  seek  to 
prevent  their  children  from  coming  under  avowedly 
sacerdotal  influence.  The  text  or  texts  in  the  Bible 
on  which  an  absolution  dogma  is  based  must  be  held 
responsible  for  a  good  deal  of  the  perennial  conflict 
between  Church  and  Dissent.  It  may  be  possible  for 
Biblical  critics  to  say  that  John  xx.  21-23  is  a  later 
insertion,  like  Matt.  xvi.  19  and  the  end  of  Mark; 
but  assuming  the  most  orthodox  possible  view,  and 
taking  the  record  of  the  words  about  the  forgiveness 
and  the  retention  of  sins  as  exact,  it  is  open  even  to 
devout  Bibliolators  to  argue  against  the  modern  use 
of  such  a  formula,  somewhat  as  follows:  "By  whom," 
they  might  ask,  "were  these  words  spoken  to  the  dis- 
ciples? Not  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth  in  the  flesh,  but 
by  the  risen  Lord  just  before  His  Ascension  and  Ses- 
sion at  the  right  hand  of  God.  That  which  He  could 
say  then,  to  those  whom  He  was  leaving  comfortless 
for  the  ten  days  between  His  departure  and  the  feast 
of  Pentecost,  is  now  said  by  every  bishop  of  the 
Church.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  what  could  be 
said  once,  under  exceptional  circumstances,  is  suitable 

the  more  gracious  and  consoling  truths  provided  for  the  little  ones  of 
Christ,  they  indirectly  lead  him  into  it.  Had  he  been  taught  as  a  child, 
that  the  Sacraments,  not  preaching,  are  the  sources  of  Divine  Grace; 
that  the  Apostolical  ministry  had  a  virtue  in  it  which  went  out  over  the 
whole  Church,  when  sought  by  the  prayer  of  faith;  that  fellowship  with 
it  was  a  gift  and  privilege,  as  well  as  a  duty,  we  could  not  have  had 
so  many  wanderers  from  our  fold,  nor  so  many  cold  hearts  within  it" 
(Advt.  to  Tracts  for  the  Times,  1834). 


92  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

for  indefinite  repetition."  Thus  might  opponents 
contend,  and  their  contention  might  have  to  be  admit- 
ted as  true,  and  the  modern  use  of  the  formula  vir- 
tually explained  away,  save  by  a  few  extremists  wTho 
still  adhere  to  its  literal  interpretation. 

Hence  there  is  a  well-marked  cause  of  difference, 
and  justification  of  a  militant  attitude.  How  then 
can  it  be  hoped  to  effect  formal  reconciliation  of  the 
two  religious  types?  At  first  sight,  only  in  one  of  two 
ways :  either  by  general  admission  of  truth  in  a  sacer- 
dotal of  this  kind;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  by  the 
equally  improbable  admission  of  the  imaginary  char- 
acter of  any  sort  of  basis  for  such  a  claim — a  percep- 
tion that,  though  it  has  survived  the  shocks  of  time, 
and  come  down  the  centuries  to  our  own  day,  it  is  yet 
a  human  imagination,  and  essentially  false. 

Taken  in  its  literal  and  bald  signification,  the  ordi- 
nation sentence  above  quoted  would  be  intolerable  to 
a  low  or  to  a  broad  Churchman ;  consequently  he  must 
be  able  to  interpret  it  otherwise.  He  would  doubt- 
less claim  that  it  signifies  the  right  to  declare  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Christian  conscience,  or  at  any  rate  of  the 
Christian  Church,  as  to  details  of  right  and  wrong: 
to  formulate,  in  fact,  the  judgments  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  under  wThose  guidance  he  is  henceforth  to  act. 
Securus  judicat  orbis  terrarum.  It  is  not,  however, 
a  barren  formula  removed  from  practice:  it  enters 
into  the  pastoral  work  of  the  priest,  and  is  applied  to 
sick  persons  in  the  following  form : 

"By  his  authority  committed  to  me,  I  absolve  thee 
from  all  thy  sins,  In  the  name,"  etc. 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  93 

Even  this,  however  though  challenged  by  John 
Henry  Newman,  and  regarded  by  him  as  inadmissi- 
ble save  under  the  Roman  aegis,  is  doubtless  capable 
of  refined  interpretation.  And  so  it  is  with  all  the 
formularies — else  it  were  impossible  for  great  and 
good  men,  to  whom  the  natural  sense  of  some  of  them 
must  be  repugnant  to  hold  office  in  the  Church  to-day. 
Let  it  be  admitted,  once  for  all,  that  saving  and  min- 
imising interpretations  are  known  and  utilised  by 
many  of  those  inside  the  pale;  and  I  shall  assume, 
without  question  now,  that  they  are  justified  in  these 
interpretations  under  the  circumstances.  But  those 
outside  the  pale,  and  those  who  are  hesitating  to  en- 
ter it,  are  liable  to  take  these  formulae  more  nearly  at 
their  face-value,  and  to  mistrust  ingenuity  of  inter- 
pretation. Wherefore — and  that  is  my  point — such 
f  ormulae  act  as  obstacles,  as  weapons  of  exclusion,  and 
as  causes  of  dissension  and  bitterness;  even  among 
those  who  in  all  essentials  agree.  And  they  have 
another  function,  perhaps  equally  harmful:  they  en- 
courage extreme  sacerdotal  pretensions  in  a  few  ex- 
ceptionally constituted  persons,  who,  whatever  may  be 
their  saintly  character,  are  in  disaccord  with  the  reli- 
gious ideals  of  the  nation.  So  much  so,  indeed,  that 
they  might  find  their  proper  place  in  another  and  a 
foreign  communion. 

Seeing,  therefore,  that  such  formulae  may  do  harm, 
it  is  open  to  question  whether  they  do  a  compensating 
amount  of  good.  Words,  such  as  those  above  quoted, 
either  mean  something  definite,  or  they  do  not.  If 
they  confer  any  real  power,  if  they  give  real  strength 


94  CORPORATE   WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

to  the  Church,  they  must  he  retained;  but  if  they  serve 
no  useful  purpose,  if  they  signify  only  what  is  nat- 
urally to  be  expected  without  them — namely,  the 
power  of  appreciating"  and  fostering  the  good,  of  de- 
tecting and  condemning  the  bad,  which  is  possessed 
by  every  decent  man — if  they  are  only  a  difficulty  to 
be  boggled  at  and  explained  away,  they  constitute  a 
weakness,  not  a  strength,  and  it  may  be  well  to  have 
them  changed. 

In  any  case  it  is  quite  absurd  for  either  side  in  the 
controversy — the  ancient  controversy  between  Catho- 
lic and  Protestant,  between  Priest  and  Presbyter,  be- 
tween High  Anglican  and  Free  Churchman,  between 
upholders  of  public  ritual  and  insisters  on  private  con- 
science, between  the  objective  and  the  subjective 
types  of  worshippers,  between  those  who  lay  stress  on 
the  Brotherhood  and  those  who  emphasise  the  indi- 
vidual life — it  is  futile  for  either  side  to  pretend  that 
the  other  side  is  wicked  and  schismatic  and  alienated 
from  God.  So  perhaps  there  is  a  third  course — what 
some  think  the  fatal  course  of  compromise — in  which 
the  permanent  vitality  of  the  two  types  of  religious 
humanity  is  recognised,  and  something  of  absolute 
truth  admitted  to  be  visible  from  both  points  of  view. 
In  which  case  it  might  not  be  too  much  to  hope  that 
the  two  groups,  no  longer  hostile,  could  ultimately 
agree  to  live  together  in  harmony,  as  two  wings  of  an 
enlarged  National  Church;  without  need  for  anyone 
to  abandon  the  phase  of  truth,  or  the  form  of  worship 
which  especially  appeals  to  his  disposition  and  theo- 
logical understanding.     At  present  there  are  Non- 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  95 

conformists,  obedient  to  private  judgment  and  dis- 
obedient to  authority,  at  both  ends  of  the  Church  of 
England: — those  who  left  it  when  what  they  con- 
sidered too  much  superstition  was  enforced ;  and  those 
who,  without  leaving  it,  feel  conscientiously  impelled 
to  ignore  both  lay  jurisdiction  and  episcopal  "admoni- 
tion" when  too  little  superstition  is  ordered; — mean- 
ing by  "superstition,"  in  this  connexion,  the  outcome 
in  practice  of  over-belief. 

I  do  not  venture  to  suggest  inclusion  in  a  National 
Church  of  those  who  take  a  non-national  view  of  their 
civil  obligations.  No  question  of  union  or  of  adap- 
tation can  be  entertained  by  those  who  regard  a  for- 
eign Potentate  and  foreign  Conclave  as  supreme  au- 
thority and  fount  of  inspiration :  nothing  short  of  sub- 
mission and  conversion  would  be  acceptable  to  them. 
Nor  is  it  possible  for  them  to  join  a  merely  national 
Church,  however  nearly  their  creed  may  approach  one 
section  of  it  on  the  purely  religious  side:  a  certain 
canon — which  I  presume  is  still  in  force — to  wit,  that 
subjects  of  a  temporal  ruler  disapproved  by  the 
Church  may  be  relieved  of  their  allegiance,  and  that 
the  promulgation  of  unacceptable  doctrine  is  to  be 
suppressed  with  a  high  hand — constitutes  a  sufficient 
obstacle.1     It  is  far  from  desirable  that  any  ecclesias- 

i  The  Lateran  Council  decree,  above  referred  to,  part  of  the  Roman 
Canon  Law,  is  guarded  against  in  the  English  Church  by  the  oath  of 
the  King's  sovereignty  administered  to  deacons,  which  runs  as  follows: — 
"I  A.  B.  do  swear,  that  I  do  from  my  heart  abhor,  detest,  and  abjure, 
as  impious  and  heretical,  that  damnable  Doctrine  and  Position,  That 
Princes  excommunicated  or  deprived  by  the  Pope,  or  any  Authority  of 
the  See  of  Rome.  EPay  be  deposed  or  jnurderad  by  their  Subjects-  o- 
any  otner  wnatsoever.     And  I  do  declare,  that  no  foreign  Prince,  Person, 


96  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

tical  gauntlet  which  investigators  of  truth  may  have 
to  run  should  in  the  smallest  degree  be  backed  up  by 
the  power  of  the  State.  But  no  such  difficulty  arises 
when  contemplating  a  reincorporation  of  the  Free 
Churches  which  have  grown  up  and  divaricated  in 
consequence  of  a  long  spell  of  intolerant  bigotry  end- 
ing in  an  act  of  disruption  in  and  about  the  year  1662. 
Many  of  them  could  easily  rejoin  one  pole  of  a  Na- 
tional Church  if  it  sought  to  attract  them ;  at  any  rate 
they  need  not  be  repelled  by  enforced  uniformity  in 
detail,  nor  by  any  kind  of  secular  legislation.  The 
Legislature  conspicuously  shrinks  from  interference 
wTith  liberty  of  conscience  and  must  recognise  that 
it  made  mistakes  in  the  past  whenever  it  con- 
sented to  be  coaxed  or  coerced  into  narrowness 
and  brutality  in  matters  of  faith.  It  would  surely 
welcome  a  movement  in  favor  of  breadth  and  reinte- 
gration, if  it  were  mooted  by  those  most  concerned. 
There  is  the  more  hope  for  some  such  solution,  in- 
asmuch as  none  but  a  bigot  could  claim  to  grasp  in 

Prelate,  State,  or  Potentate,  hath,  or  ought  to  have,  any  Jurisdiction, 
Power,  Superiority,  Pre-eminence,  or  Authority,  Ecclesiastical  or  Spir- 
itual, within  this  Realm.     So  help  me  God." 

This  is  the  wording  of  the  decree:  "Let  the  secular  powers,  what- 
ever offices  they  may  exercise  .  .  .  exterminate  from  the  territories 
under  their  jurisdiction  heretics  of  all  kinds  marked  out  hy  the  Church. 
.  .  .  But  if  any  temporal  ruler,  being  required  and  admonished  by 
the  Church,  shall  neglect  to  purge  his  land  from  this  heretical  filth, 
let  him  be  bound  in  the  chain  of  excommunication  by  the  metropolitan 
and  other  bishops  of  the  province.  And  if  he  shall  disdain  to  make 
satisfaction  within  a  year,  let  this  be  signified  to  the  Supreme  Pontiff, 
that  he  may  declare  the  vassals  of  that  ruler  henceforth  released  from 
their  allegiance,  and  may  offer  the  land  to  occupation  by  Catholics,  who, 
having  exterminated  the  heretics,  may  possess  it  in  peace  and  preserve 
it  steadfast  in  the  Faith." 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  97 

his  own  person  the  whole  truth  concerning  a  subject 
of  infinite  magnitude,  or  could  suppose  that  the 
precise  form  of  worship  most  suited  to  himself  must 
necessarily  be  dominant  throughout  the  cosmos. 
Wherefore  it  might  be  recognised,  by  reasonable  per- 
sons on  either  side,  that  the  manifest  enthusiasm  and 
religious  fervour  of  those  from  whom  they  differ  are 
roused,  not  by  falsehood  and  error,  but  by  real  por- 
tions, even  though  they  be  fragmentary  portions,  of 
Divine  truth  which  have  hitherto  escaped  their  own 
ken,  or  for  which  their  own  emotional  and  aesthetic 
nature  happens  to  be  unfitted. 

The  possibility  of  such  a  concordat  may  at  first 
sight  seem  remote,  but  it  is  worth  more  than  momen- 
tary consideration,  and  it  is  possible  to  detect  more 
reasonableness  embedded  in  the  proposal  than  appears 
on  the  surface. 

First  of  all,  then,  let  us  ask  is  it  true  that  any 
worshipper,  however  spiritually  minded,  can  dispense 
altogether  with  material  facts  as  an  aid  to  the  ex- 
pression and  realisation  of  spiritual  truth,  and  as  an 
external  stimulus  to  the  attitude  of  worship?  Can 
the  spiritual  and  the  material,  in  fact,  be  entirely  and 
utterly  discriminated  and  separated?  I  will  not  ask 
whether  such  separation  is  or  is  not  desirable;  I  will 
not  point  out  how  much  loss  would  be  sustained  if  it 
were  practicable — how  fatal  to  half  of  nature  such  an 
achievement  would  immediately  be;  but  I  will  simply 
ask,  is  it  ever  done,  as  a  fact?  I  believe  that  a  little 
consideration  will  show  that  it  is  never  really  accom- 


98  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

plished,  and  that  some  material  agent  is  active  even 
in  the  most  refined  and  spiritual  perceptions.  It  will 
at  least  be  admitted  that  in  the  case  of  some  religiously 
minded  persons  the  sights  and  sounds  of  nature 
awaken  a  sense  of  Divine  presence.  In  others  the 
same  feelings  are  aroused  by  hearing  of  some  human 
action,  or  by  meeting  other  human  beings  with  whom 
they  are  in  sympathy.  Some  men  are  carried  God- 
wTard  by  beauty,  others  by  truth,  others  by  goodness; 
and  some  even  by  the  commonplace  actions  of  daily 
life.  A  remarkable  face,  casually  encountered,  or  a 
word  even  from  a  stranger,  has  been  known  occasion- 
ally to  call  up  thoughts  akin  to  worship,  even  in  the 
most  unritualistic  follower  of  George  Fox. 

"Just  when  we  are  safest,  there's  a  sunset-touch, 
A  fancy  from  a  flower-bell,  some  one's  death, 
A  chorus-ending  from  Euripides, — 
And  that's  enough  for  fifty  hopes  and  fears 
As  old  and  new  at  once  as  nature's  self, 
To  rap  and  knock  and  enter  in  our  soul." 

If  there  be  any  truth  in  the  suggestion— and  it  is  a 
question  which  must  be  answered  by  each  for  himself, 
it  can  hardly  be  put  in  a  form  that  will  equally  apply 
to  every  individual — then  an  essential  feature  of  the 
sacramental  efficacy  of  material  or  external  things, 
when  spiritually  regarded  and  transfigured  in  the 
light  of  a  dominating  faith,  is  admitted:  for  material 
means  whereby  the  soul  can  be  elevated,  and  brought 
into  conscious  relation  with  Deity,  are  essentially  of 
the  nature  of  sacraments. 

"To  attempt  to  grasp  the  infinite  by  reason,"  says 
Plotinus,  "is  futile;  it  can  only  be  known  in  immedi- 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  99 

ate  presence.  The  faculty  by  which  the  mind  divests 
itself  of  its  personality  is  Ecstasy.  In  ecstasy  the  soul 
becomes  loosed  from  its  material  prison,  separated 
from  individual  consciousness,  and  becomes  absorbed 
in  the  Infinite  Intelligence  from  which  it  emanated." 
This  condition  of  inspiration,  direct  intuition,  or  en- 
thusiasm,— some  approach  to  what  is  meant  by  "see- 
ing God," — is  but  transitory,  and  may  be  rare,  but  it 
can  be  induced  by  a  great  variety  of  instrument.  A 
few  attain  it  during  the  contemplation  of  law  and 
order  enshrined  in  a  mathematical  expression,  or  in 
some  comprehensive  philosophic  formula ;  but  to  many 
the  transfiguring  and  revealing  experience  is  her- 
alded by  the  song  of  birds,  by  sunshine  upon  grass, 
by  the  wind  in  tree-tops,  or  by  the  wild  solitude  of 
mountains.  To  one  the  vision  comes  during  the 
music  of  an  orchestra  or  the  sight  of  a  great  work  of 
art ;  to  another,  the  atmosphere  of  an  empty  cathedral 
is  full  of  it;  while  to  another,  again,  the  same  cathe- 
dral must  contain  lights  and  incense  in  order  effec- 
tively to  act  as  a  medium.  To  many  the  acts  of 
common  worship  are  an  invaluable  aid;  while  others 
find  their  fullest  help  towards  realising  the  Divine 
presence  in  the  consecrated  materials  of  a  purposely 
arranged  and  specially  organised  Sacrament. 

The  means  of  grace  last  mentioned — being  con- 
sciously directed  to  a  desired  end — must  be  considered 
as  especially  forcible  and  effective;  at  any  rate  for 
those  who  are  constituted  in  such  a  way  as  to  appreci- 
ate accessories  and  aids  of  this  kind.  But  it  is  not  to 
be  denied  that,  in  spite  of  good  intention,  these  eccle- 


100  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

siastical  forms  and  ceremonies  strike  another  type  of 
religious  disposition  as  so  humanly  ingenious  and  spe- 
cifically organised  as  to  repel  rather  than  attract  di- 
vine thoughts;  which  with  these  people  arise  in  more 
spontaneous  fashion,  amid  the  simplicity  of  almost 
unassisted  worship  in  plain  buildings,  or  among  the 
solitudes  of  unconsecrated  nature. 

It  must  be  admitted  however, — and  I  presume  that 
Nonconformists  would  be  the  last  to  deny  it, — that 
there  is  always  a  danger  lest,  if  human  effort  and  or- 
ganisation be  altogether  discarded,  as  they  sometimes 
are  by  religiously  minded  secularists,  the  opportunities 
for  spontaneous  excitation  of  religious  thoughts  may 
seldom  or  never  occur ;  and  so  gradually  the  power  of 
entertaining  lofty  ideas  may  become  atrophied  by 
lack  of  use.  Moreover,  those  who  depend  entirely  on 
the  capacities  of  their  own  unaided  individual  soul 
may  find,  in  times  of  stress,  a  sad  enrptiness  and 
dearth  of  comfort  there.  That  is  at  once  the  weak- 
ness and  strength  of  an  emphatically  spiritual  re- 
ligion: it  makes  a  severe  demand  on  the  worshippers' 
own  powers  and  faculties.  This  constitutes  a  weak- 
ness,— for  there  come  times  when  the  spirit  is  so 
harassed  by  the  troubles  and  trials  of  existence  that 
even  the  stoutest  cannot  stand  the  strain;  but  it  con- 
stitutes also  a  strength, — inasmuch  as  it  braces  and 
exercises  and  develops  the  fibres  of  the  character. 

There  will  also  be  those  who  are  impressed  with,  not 
so  much  the  right  as  the  duty  of  private  judgment; 
and  on  the  other  hand  there  will  always  be  those  who 
willingly  submit  to  authority.     In  the  same  way  we 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  101 

must  recognise  a  constitutional  difference,  a  differ- 
ence of  temperament,  a  difference  of  response  to  di- 
verse appeals.  But  the  difference  is  only  dependent 
on  "accident"  or  appropriateness  of  vehicle:  it  is  not 
a  difference  of  really  fundamental  character;  and 
though  it  is  natural  to  prefer  one  form  of  material 
accessory  to  another,  it  is  not  human,  at  least  it  is  not 
religious,  to  despise  and  reject  them  all. 

It  is  perhaps  not  known  to  everybody  that  the 
general  nature  of  a  sacrament  is  recognised  by  the 
English  Church — very  likely  by  the  Roman  Church 
too, — for  it  is  definitely  laid  down  in  the  "Homilies" 
that  in  a  certain  sense  there  may  be  many  sacraments : 

"Therefore  neither  it,  nor  any  other  sacrament  else, 
be  such  sacraments  as  Baptism  and  Communion  are; 
but  in  a  general  acception  the  name  of  a  sacrament 
may  be  attributed  to  anything  whereby  an  holy  thing 
is  signified"  {Homily  on  Common  Prayer  and  Sac- 
raments) . 

Wherefore,  opponents  may  ask,  why  not  then  carry 
out  this  doctrine  into  practice?  why  urge  the  impor- 
tance of  two,  or  of  seven? 

One  orthodox  answer  is  that  the  two  are  "necessary 
to  salvation," — a  doctrine  corresponding  with  the 
over-literal  misreading  of  a  text,  and  not  really  be- 
lieved any  more  than  the  corresponding  "Athana- 
sian"  clauses  are  believed.  But  a  better  answer,  and 
indeed  the  answer  of  Christendom  generally  with  few 
exceptions,  is  that  the  two  were  in  a  special  sense 
authorised  and  enjoined  by  Christ;  so  in  order  to  es- 
timate their  crucial  character  it  is  instructive  to  con- 


102  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

sider  how  these  specially  Christian  sacraments  arose. 
It  is  easy  to  add  an  element  of  mysticism  to  the  bare 
facts,  and  those  who  make  this  addition  may  claim  it 
as  a  sign  of  spiritual  growth;  but  the  addition  should 
be  voluntary,  it  cannot  wisely  be  imposed  by  legisla- 
tion. The  bare  facts  themselves  may  be  legitimately 
and  inoffensively  regarded  somewhat  thus: 

Jesus  found  the  old  baptismal  act  of  ceremonial 
washing  revived  and  used  as  a  sign  of  repentance  by 
his  great  precursor, — either  as  a  symbolic  cleansing, 
or  else  as  a  symbolic  burying  to  sin  and  new  birth  to 
righteousness  (for  both  significations  can  be  attached 
to  the  rite  of  immersion)  ;  instinctively  he  recognised 
the  advantage  of  associating  divine  thoughts  with  so 
common  an  act  as  bathing  or  washing,  and,  just  as  he 
utilised  any  common  event  for  doctrinal  purposes,  so 
he  utilised  this  act,  by  submitting  himself  to  it :  there- 
by canonising  it  among  Christians  for  all  time.  But 
then  he  did  the  same  thing  virtually  with  the  sower 
and  the  seed,  with  a  marriage  feast,  with  fisherman's 
nets,  with  carpenters'  tools,  and  a  multitude  of  com- 
mon incidents  of  life;  though  in  these  the  Church, 
perhaps  fortunately,  has  been  slower  to  follow  him  to 
the  full  extent.  I  say  fortunately,  because  it  is  so  apt 
to  let  its  enthusiasm  carry  it  unwisely  far :  in  the  case 
of  baptism  it  has  at  certain  periods  of  its  history,  at 
any  rate  in  some  of  its  branches,  gone  too  far,  and 
converted  a  ceremony  of  admission  into  a  miraculous 
rite  of  saving  efficacy. 

In  another  case  also  it  has  not  only  followed,  but 
has  emphatically  gone  beyond  and  exceeded,  its  in- 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  103 

structions,  to  what  many  think  a  lamentable  extent ;  at 
times  even  daring  to  inflict  torture  and  death  on  those 
who  could  not  travel  with  it  along  this  humanly  ex- 
tended road.  For  the  common  act  of  eating  and 
drinking  was  among  those  conspicuously  sanctified  by 
Christ;  on  that  pathetic  occasion  when,  after  long 
discourse  on  his  approaching  fate,  and  much  figura- 
tive speech  concerning  the  necessity  for  complete 
union  with  himself,  he  took  up  the  bread  and  the  wine, 
no  doubt  blessing  them  after  the  still  extant  Jewish 
fashion,  and  then — perhaps  half  thinking  of  ancient 
pagan  rites,  wherein  exuberant  gentile  worshippers 
had  spoken  of  eating  the  flesh  of  a  god,  and  certainly 
remembering  the  sacrifices  of  flesh  and  blood  familiar 
in  their  own  scriptures  and  in  the  forthcoming  pass- 
over — added,  in  a  moment  of  enthusiasm  fraught  with 
strange  destiny  for  the  future  Church,  "This  is  my 
flesh  and  this  is  my  blood.  Bless  it,  and  take  it,  and 
remember  me  whenever  henceforth  ye  feed  together." 
As  for  himself,  this  was  his  last  food  and  his  last 
drink — a  long  spasm  of  torture  and  hunger  and  thirst 
was  all  that  lay  before  him  on  earth — "I  shall  taste 
no  more  of  the  fruit  of  the  vine  till  I  drink  it  new  with 
you  in  the  Kingdom  of  my  Father." 

Regarded  simply  and  naturally,  it  is  a  gracious 
domestic  ceremony ;  akin  to  the  toast  of  good  fellow- 
ship, but  with  the  sadness  of  pain  and  parting  com- 
mingled. It  was  surely  intended  as  an  act  of  union 
and  brotherhood,  not  as  a  testing  instrument  or  divid- 
ing engine.  The  sharing  of  one  loaf  is  recognised 
by  St.  Paul  (1  Cor.  x.  IT)  as  a  symbol  of  the  oneness 


104-  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

of  the  many  in  the  Christian  body — a  true  com- 
munion. 

Looked  at  from  the  point  of  view  of  subsequent 
history,  and  what  human  organisation  has  made  of  it, 
even  devout  worshippers  must  admit  that  superstition 
has  been  prone  to  enter,  and  that  its  ecclesiastical  de- 
velopments have  been  at  times  painful  beyond  de- 
scription. 

Yet  that  should  not  prevent  those  who  prefer  not 
to  partake  of  ecclesiastically  administered  sacrament 
from  recognising  that  to  others  it  constitutes  the  very 
bread  of  life,  and  that  to  worshippers  of  this  character 
the  meaning  and  efficacy  of  the  symbols  are  en- 
hanced beyond  measure  by  ceremonial  observance 
and  ritual. 

What  has  been  said  about  sacraments  can  be  in- 
terpreted as  applying  to  priesthood  also.  A  priest  is 
a  vehicle  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  an  interpreter  of  divine 
things,  and  a  helper  towards  higher  life.  Priesthood 
is  a  reality ;  but,  if  my  interpretation  of  it  be  correct, 
it  cannot  be  a  professional  monopoly.  Like  genius, 
it  evades  definition ;  but  is  it  not  likely  to  be  coercible 
and  transmissible  by  ceremonial  means.  Surely  it 
must  be  true  that  the  Spirit  moveth  where  it  listeth, 
and  is  not  amenable  to  clerical  control. 

Every  man,  woman,  or  child  who  has  the  power  of 
elevating  the  thought  of  another  human  being,  every- 
one who  is  chosen  to  act  as  a  channel  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  is  for  the  time  a  priest.  It  may  be  well  to  set 
aside  and  train  and  guard  a  band  of  persons  who  feel 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  105 

specially  called  to  this  high  office ;  in  the  hope  that  by 
discipline  and  custom  their  powers  of  true  priesthood 
and  sainthood  may  increase.  It  is  desirable  that  the 
Church  should  set  store  by  and  guard  its  priests,  just 
as  it  guards  its  sacraments,  from  pollution  and  con- 
tamination with  the  things  of  the  outer  world.  Pre- 
cautionary and  reverential  arrangements  are  humanly 
intelligible  and  more  or  less  necessary,  but  they  are 
not  essential;  they  are  matters  of  ecclesiastical  polity, 
not  of  divine  ordinance. 

The  Church  recognises,  indeed,  that  every  man  is  in 
some  small  sense  a  priest  in  his  own  household,  and 
admits  that  in  times  of  emergency  he  may  act  as  such, 
up  to  the  point  of  administering  the  minor  sacrament 
of  Baptism,  provided  he  employs  the  right  material 
and  the  authorised  form  of  words;  but,  save  for  this 
charitable  exception,  it  jealously  guards  its  own 
rites  and  privileges,  and  denies  the  real  apostolic 
authority  to  all  save  those  whom  it  has  itself 
ordained:  thereby  and  to  that  extent  appearing  to 
claim  a  monopoly  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which,  in  the 
judgment  of  many,  it  cannot  rigorously  sustain,  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  it  may  be  justified  by  public  conven- 
ience and  usage. 

So  long  as  specific  and  special  priesthood  is  recog- 
nised as  possessed  only  in  a  representative  capacity,  it 
can  do  no  harm.  Harm  begins  when  an  exclusive 
character  is  claimed  for  it.  The  true  official  priest  is 
representative  or  typical  of  the  potential  priesthood 
of  all  religious  humanity,  a  symbol  of  the  close  con- 
nection and  affectionate  intercourse  between  God  and 


106         CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

man:  somewhat  as  Christ  was  essentially  the  son  of 
man  and  son  of  God,  to  the  exclusion  of  none  of  his 
brethren. 

In  this  form  the  office  is  not  to  be  stigmatised  as 
sacerdotal — it  is  only  to  be  so  stigmatised  when  it 
claims  to  be  exclusive,  when  it  seeks  to  be  a  monopoly 
of  the  grace  of  God. 

So  also  the  Eucharist  may  legitimately  be  held  to 
represent  or  typify  a  Divine  Presence,  provided  it  is 
likewise  taught  that  all  nature  is  the  living  garment  of 
God,  and  that  space  and  time  are  expressions  of  His 
thoughts.  It  is  not  a  claim  for  the  Divine  presence, 
but  a  claim  for  the  Divine  absence — anywhere — that 
should  be  resisted. 

There  is  no  need  for  nonconformist  feeling  in  these 
matters,  except  in  details  of  administration  which  may 
well  be  made  more  elastic.  Priesthood  and  sacra- 
ments are  realities ;  forms  and  orderlv  ceremonies  are 
necessary  for  collective  human  worship :  it  is  their  ex- 
aggeration and  misunderstanding  that  is  to  be  depre- 
cated, not  the  things  themselves.  Those  who  think 
they  are  worshipping  in  spirit  only,  are  really  using 
forms  and  material  aids,  though  the  forms  may  be  of 
a  simple  character.  An  attitude  of  body,  an  enforced 
silence,  a  gathering  together  into  an  accustomed  build- 
ing, the  reading  of  a  book,  the  singing  of  a  hymn — 
all  these  are  physical  and  material  aids  to  spiritual 
growth,  and  are  therefore  essentially  sacramental. 
It  is  but  a  question  of  degree;  and  those  who  cannot 
utilise  forms  of  so  simple  a  character  are  justified  in 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  107 

seeking  to  invent  and  enjoy  ceremonies  of  a  more 
elaborate  kind. 

So  also,  everyone  privileged  to  act  as  a  minister 
of  God,  a  true  vehicle  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  for  the 
time  being  a  priest  by  right  divine.  It  is  only  because 
under  present  conditions  such  influence  is  compara- 
tively rare,  that  we  have  to  betake  ourselves  to  a  pro- 
fessional priesthood.  It  is  a  necessity:  it  is  not  an 
ideal.  The  ideal  held  out  by  Christ  himself  was  a 
high  one.  "Be  ye  perfect,"  he  said.  Be  a  Christ, 
he  might  have  said:  be  thyself  a  messenger  and  re- 
vealer  of  divine  truth,  up  to  the  measure  of  thy  ca- 
pacity. "Receive  ye  the  Holy  Spirit."  He  did  not 
say  these  things  to  the  priest  and  orthodox  worship- 
pers of  his  own  day — to  them  he  said  quite  other 
things : — these  high  injunctions  he  laid  upon  a  body  of 
trained  and  chosen  peasants  who  had  loved  and  fol- 
lowed him,  and  thus  ordained  them  with  genuine 
priesthood. 

And  to  all  the  animate  and  inanimate  creatures,  of 
earth  and  air  and  sea,  he  gave  a  message  too.  On 
all  of  them  he  conferred  sacramental  efficacy — noth- 
ing is  unholy  or  unclean — everything  can  join  in  the 
song  of  joy  and  worship  that  rises  from  all  healthy 
nature.  By  his  teaching  the  whole  world  of  matter 
is  transfigured  and  glorified  before  our  eyes ;  it  is  suf- 
fused with  immanent  Deity,  and  has  become,  for 
those  with  eyes  to  see,  a  mirror  of  the  Almighty. 

Now  all  this,  which  to  most  of  us  is  so  clear  now, 


108  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

was  not  equally  clear  to  the  generality  of  folk  in  the 
times  gone  by.  Saints  here  and  there  seized  the  truth, 
no  doubt,  and  tried  to  express  it  in  language  fitted  to 
their  time;  but  from  the  great  mass  of  the  people  it 
was  hidden.  Persons  in  high  office — Archbishop 
Cranmer  and  others — put  together  our  liturgy, 
during  a  moderately  exalted  period  of  English  his- 
tory, utilising  many  beautiful  petitions  and  formu- 
laries, and  showing  great  genius  for  the  work;  but  it 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that  they  were  gifted  with  infal- 
libility, so  that  they  grasped  the  truth  completely  and 
expressed  it  for  all  time.  Nor  was  the  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment which  crystallised  and  congealed  the  Prayer 
Book  an  inspired  document.1  Admitting  that  his- 
toric forms  make  a  special  appeal  to  the  emotions, 
revision  of  the  Prayer  Book  on  the  intellectual 
side  ought  to  be  and  is  necessary,  especially  after  a 
century  of  great  intellectual  achievement.  The  ques- 
tion arises  whether  the  time  is  not  ripe  for  revision 
now. 

Loth  as  I  am  to  meddle  with  professional  and  ec- 
clesiastical matters,  the  present  juncture  in  the  history 
of  the  English  Church  and  nation  seems  to  me  suffi- 
ciently important  to  compel  those  who  recognise  the 
pressing  need  for  social  reform,  and  the  great  power 
and  influence  for  good  which  a  truly  efficient  Church 
would  possess,  to  urge  a  reconsideration  of  the  im- 
plicit tests  and  requirements  imposed  on  candidates 

i  Even  Newman,  in  a  tract  urging  no  concession  or  tittle  of  alter- 
ation, says:  "I  confess  that  there  are  few  parts  of  the  Service  that  I 
could  not  disturb  myself  about  and  feel  fastidious  at,  if  I  allowed  my 
mind  in  this  abuse  of  reason." 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  109 

for  Holy  Orders  in  the  Church  of  England  at  various 
stages  in  their  career. — The  fact  that  it  is  a  National 
Church  removes  the  charge  of  impertinence  from  the 
utterance  of  a  layman  on  such  matters.  The  spirit  of 
the  following  sentences,  taken  from  "His  Majesty's 
Declaration"  printed  in  every  Anglican  Prayer 
Book,  is  not  attractive  to  an  age  which  has  imbibed 
the  idea  of  evolution  and  some  conception  of  the  faith- 
ful investigation  of  truth: 

.  .  .  "the  settled  Continuance  of  the  Doctrine  and 
Disciple  of  the  Church  of  England  now  established; 
from  which  We  will  not  endure  any  varying  or  de- 
parting in  the  least  Degree.  .  .  .  We  will,  that  all 
further  curious  search  be  laid  aside.  .  .  .  And  that 
no  man  hereafter  shall  either  print,  or  preach,  to 
draw  the  Article  aside  any  way,  but  shall  submit  to  it 
in  the  plain  and  full  meaning  thereof:  and  shall  not 
put  his  own  sense  or  comment  to  be  the  meaning 
of  the  Article,  but  shall  take  it  in  the  literal  and 
grammatical  sense. 

"That  if  any  publick  Reader  in  either  of  Our  Uni- 
versities, or  any  Head  or  Master  of  a  College,  or  any 
other  person  respectively  in  either  of  them,  shall  affix 
any  new  sense  to  any  Article,  or  shall  publickly  read, 
determine,  or  hold  any  publick  Disputation,  or  suf- 
fer any  such  to  be  held  either  way,  in  either  the  Uni- 
versities or  Colleges  respectively;  or  if  any  Divine 
in  the  Universities  shall  preach  or  print  any  thing 
either  way,  other  than  is  already  established  in  Con- 
vocation with  Our  Royal  Assent;  he,  or  they,  the  Of- 
fenders, shall  be  liable  to  Our  displeasure,  and  the 


110  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

Church's  censure  in  our  Commission  Ecclesiastical, 
as  well  as  any  other:  And  We  will  see  there  shall  be 
due  Execution  upon  them." 

If  the  Church  excludes,  and  to  some  extent  even 
if  it  only  threatens  to  exclude,  from  its  ministry  all 
young  men  who  are  unable  to  accept  a  system  of 
archaic  formula?  as  valid,  with  whatever  saving 
clauses  and  subterfuges  it  dilutes  in  practice  its 
theoretical  requirements,  it  may  be  creating  for  itself 
an  "unnatural  selection,"  so  to  speak,  a  survival  or 
selection  of  the  weakest.  And  if  it  does  so,  then,  like 
any  other  organism  in  the  same  case,  it  must  in  the 
long  run  infallibly  degenerate. 

I  believe  that  its  leaders,  its  real  leaders,  admit  that 
it  could  with  advantage  amend  its  procedure  in  sev- 
eral particulars;  especially  that  it  could  diminish  the 
amount  of  mechanical  uniformity  and  allow  some 
elasticity  in  the  use  of  a  liturgy  which,  though  fra- 
grant with  historical  aroma,  has  now  become  to  many 
people  monotonous  and  barren.  But  the  chief  wish 
of  those  who  love  the  idea  of  a  National  Church  is 
that  it  would  so  modify  its  entrance  barriers,  and  so 
simplify  its  formularies,  as  to  draw  to  itself  more 
young  men  of  character,  intellect,  and  breadth  of 
view. 

Only  so  can  it  once  more  become,  what  it  ought  to 
be  and  is  not,  a  truly  comprehensive  National  Church, 
— one  flock  under  one  Shepherd, — elevating  and 
sanctifying  the  State  by  connexion  with  it;  instead  of, 
what  many  now  consider  it,  an  unholy  alliance  of 
mingled  constraint  and  privilege, — hampered  in  its 


UNION  AND  BREADTH  111 

own  actions  by  the  rigidity  of  its  connexion  with 
Parliament,  and  yet  drawing  thence  so  much  worldly 
dignity  and  social  independence  as  to  be  regarded 
with  suspicion  by  an  able  and  energetic  portion  of  a 
religiously  minded  nation,  whose  ministers  are  ex- 
cluded from  co-operation  in  the  National  ceremonies 
and  from  official  recognition  by  the  State,  and  who 
consequently  conduct  their  ministrations  at  a  percep- 
tible disadvantage :  a  disadvantage  which  to  Newman 
seemed  so  serious  that  he  wrote,  in  1833:  "We  know 
how  miserable  is  the  condition  of  religious  bodies  not 
supported  by  the  State." 

The  difficulties  surrounding  reform  are  consider- 
able, though  it  is  possible  to  exaggerate  them;  but 
sooner  or  later  it  will  be  undertaken;  and  the  exclu- 
siveness  of  State  connexion  will  be  broken  down, 
either  by  the  method  of  disestablishment,  or  by  that 
of  greater  comprehensiveness  and  union.  Would 
that  a  movement  might  be  made  towards  union !  Not 
union  in  every  minor  doctrine,  nor  in  every  detail  of 
practice,  but  unison  of  effort,  coupled  with  clear  prac- 
tical perception  of  the  real  needs  of  the  time.  To  this 
end  artificial  boundaries  must  be  broken  down,  and 
the  domain  covered  by  the  National  Church  must  be 
broadened  till  it  includes  all  aspiring  workers  who 
are  casting  out  devils  in  the  one  Name. 


CHAPTER  VI 
A  REFORMED  CHURCH  AS  AN  ENGINE  OF  PROGRESS 

"Religion  was  once  the  pillar  of  fire  which  went  before  the  human 
race  in  its  great  march  through  history,  showing  it  the  way.  Now  it  is 
fast  assuming  the  role  of  the  ambulance  which  follows  in  the  rear  and 
picks  up  the  exhausted  and  wounded.  This,  too,  is  a  great  work,  but  it 
is  not  sufficient.  And  when  religion  has  disburdened  herself  of  all  her 
dead  values,  she  will  once  more,  in  intimate  association  with  ethics,  rise 
to  be  a  power  which  leads  men  forward." — Hoffding. 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  I  have  urged  that  the  re- 
creation and  continuance  of  a  truly  National 
Church  must  involve  a  great  simplification  of  Church 
enactments,  so  as  to  leave  fair  freedom  of  interpreta- 
tion concerning  the  meaning  of  Christian  ceremonies ; 
and  that  the  way  to  reform  lies  through  a  movement 
of  breadth  and  incorporation,  which  should  consoli- 
date the  now  prevalent  desire  for  greater  tolerance 
and  union. 

In  the  belief  that  the  subject  is  of  great  import- 
ance, and  that  the  time  is  nearly  ripe  for  reform,  I 
now  wish  to  proceed  further  in  the  same  direction, 
and  to  urge  that,  putting  less  trust  in  oaths  and  form- 
ularies, we  should  cease  from  attempting  to  bind  by 
anticipation  revolting  and  unwilling  spirits,  and  show 
more  faith  in  living  humanity — especially  in  the  kind 
of  humanity  which  feels  called  to  work  in  the  Chris- 

112 


CHURCH  AS  AN  ENGINE  OF  PROGRESS        113 

tian  vineyard.  There  need  be  no  forced  alteration 
of  procedure  in  religious  services,  but  there  should 
be  large  avoidance  of  compulsory  uniformity.  We 
must  admit  the  existence  of  worshippers  of  different 
types,  we  must  realise  the  need  for  growth  and  de- 
velopment, and  must  encourage  loyalty  to  the  spirit 
of  truth — especially  among  those  who  co-operate  in 
good  works;  in  the  assurance  that,  by  those  who  do 
the  works,  all  essential  doctrine  will  be  sufficiently  ac- 
cepted, without  compulsion,  in  due  time. 

It  may  seem  inappropriate,  and  in  strict  sense  im- 
pertinent, for  a  student  of  science  to  feel  strongly  on 
such  topics,  but  it  is  an  inappropriateness  not  without 
precedent.  The  general  welfare  of  humanity,  and 
the  stability  of  advancing  civilisation,  are  themes  of 
interest  to  all,  whatever  our  special  studies  may  be; 
and  before  now  a  prophet  of  Art  has  felt  constrained 
to  urge  that  artistic  development  must  be  stunted,  and 
the  highest  art  impossible,  until  social  conditions  are 
improved.  So  also  some  writers  and  speakers,  with 
the  ear  of  the  populace,  condemn  a  peaceful  absorp- 
tion in  scientific  pursuits,  amid  the  surrounding  mass 
of  poverty  and  misery,  as  a  mark  of  selfishness  and 
hard-heartedness.  What  is  the  good  of  abstruse 
scientific  theories,  they  say,  when  what  people  need  is 
wholesome  food  and  warmth  and  decent  homes !  And 
the  thoughts  of  many  a  would-be  student  are  per- 
turbed in  the  same  way.  These  good  and  sympathetic 
people  vicariously  feel  the  pressure  of  life  so  keenly 
that  no  occupation  save  relieving  the  pain  seems  worth 
while.     Their  lives  and  sympathies  are  so  absorbed 


114  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

and  exhausted  in  the  tormenting  problems  of  a  great 
city,  under  present  conditions,  that  they  grow  to  re- 
gard the  multifarious  interests  of  the  world  through 
the  perspective  of  the  victim  on  the  rack,  to  whom 
but  one  thing  is  needful. 

But  I  lay  no  particular  stress  on  a  likelihood  of 
injury  to  knowledge,  through  prevalent  lack  of  sym- 
pathy with  pure  science  and  ignorance  of  its  intrinsic 
value,  nor  on  any  other  merely  intellectual  obstacle; 
that  is  not  the  sort  of  thing  which  paralyses  activity 
and  acts  as  a  constant  sore.  If  society  were  in  a 
healthy  condition,  if  the  development  and  elevation  of 
man  had  not  to  take  a  secondary  and  quite  subordi- 
nate place  to  the  development  and  accumulation  of 
property,  a  few  generations  of  better  education  could 
easily  mend  it  on  the  intellectual  side;  but  it  is  the 
greedy  and  essentially  uncivilised  condition  of  what 
prides  itself  as  the  most  practical  part  of  society,  and 
the  consequent  deep-rooted  and  unadmitted  canker 
eating  into  the  bones  of  the  social  organism,  that  is 
disquieting  and  oppressive. 

It  is  against  all  this  that  a  National  Church  is  or 
should  be  fighting.  If  these  evils  are  to  be  uprooted, 
I  cannot  see  how  the  uprooting  can  be  done  by  a 
single  reformer  or  prophet — a  Carlyle,  a  Ruskin,  or 
a  Morris — here  and  there;  they  must  be  attacked  by 
an  organised  army  of  workers  and  thinkers,  imbued 
with  the  right  spirit,  informed  as  to  the  real  facts, 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  goodness,  and  trained  for  the 
detection  of  long-accustomed  errors  and  for  the  de- 
velopment of  human  life. 


CHURCH  AS  AN  ENGINE  OF  PROGRESS        115 

An  efficient  contingent  of  such  an  army  exists,  or 
should  exist,  in  the  churches  of  every  denomination. 
Here  are  men  picked  out,  we  must  suppose,  for  their 
keen  perception  of  right  and  wrong,  for  their  en- 
thusiasm and  longing  after  higher  life, — men  who  are 
subjected  to  special  training  for  the  work,  and  then 
sent  as  missionaries  throughout  the  whole  range  of 
society,  to  preach  Christ's  Gospel  and  to  bring  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  into  realisation  upon  earth. 
Here  should  be  a  general  staff  of  commanding 
power,  if  only  it  be  in  real  touch  with  the  people,  if 
only  it  realises  the  extent  and  the  quality  of  its  mis- 
sion, and  is  properly  prepared  to  cope  with  it.  But  it 
must  concentrate  its  weapons  upon  the  enemy,  and 
must  not  employ  them  in  internecine  warfare.  An 
army  whose  officers  dispute  among  themselves,  whose 
horse  and  foot  are  in  conflict,  and  whose  artillery  is 
trained  upon  its  engineers,  is  not  an  efficient  instru- 
ment of  conquest. 

Those  who  realise  to  some  extent  what  a  power  for 
good  a  truly  National  Church  might  be,  and  how  with 
comparative  ease  the  earnest  religious  spirit  of  Eng- 
land could  absorb  and  utilise  the  energies  of  such  a 
Church — a  truly  Christian  and  truly  comprehensive 
Church,  with  the  best  men  attracted,  not  repelled,  the 
present  narrow  mechanical  uniformity  superseded  by 
breadth  and  liberality,  with  errors  of  past  history  dis- 
carded, mean  jealousies  extinguished,  and  differences 
composed — such  persons  may  feel  that  the  reform 
and  strengthening  of  the  Church  is  perhaps  the  best 
though  not  the  most  direct  route  towards  elimination 


116  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

of  the  wrongs  and  amelioration  of  the  evils  of  our 
social  state.  At  present  many  of  the  thinking  work- 
ers are  alienated  from  what  they  imagine  is  religion; 
and  a  cry  for  general  secularisation  is  gaining  ground. 
The  State  may  be  rightly  urged  to  have  nothing  to  do 
with  controversial  religion ;  but  the  elimination  of  re- 
ligious disputes  and  the  elimination  of  religion  are  not 
necessarilv  the  same  thing'.  The  cessation  of  all  re- 
cognition  of  religion  itself  by  the  State  is  certainly 
not  a  step  in  the  right  direction. 

The  cry  for  disestablishment  is  not  loud  just  now; 
but  it  is  liable  to  be  raised  at  any  time,  so  long  as  the 
present  condition  of  special  privilege  continues.  The 
cry  is  really  a  cry  for  more  equality  of  treatment — 
for  more  national  recognition  all  round.  Only  a  few 
want  to  separate  all  religion  from  the  State;  though 
many  might  rejoice  at  freedom  from  so-called  Eras- 
tian  control.  A  section  of  Presbyterians  north  of  the 
Tweed  may  feel  conscientiously  opposed  to  State- 
connexion  of  any  kind,  and  some  Nonconformists 
may  imagine  that  they  feel  conscientious  objection; 
but  that  is  not  the  real  bugbear  in  England;  it  is  the 
limitation  and  narrowness  of  the  connexion  that  is 
really  objected  to.  Broaden  the  Church  out  till  it  is 
truly  national,  by  removing  the  preposterous  coercion 
in  detail  which  is  now  nominally  exercised, — and  the 
grievance  disappears.  The  National  Church  could 
then  absorb  the  best  activities  of  all  denominations, 
and  the  nation  would  be  strengthened  on  its  highest 
side  to  an  incalculable  extent.  Efforts  at  betterment 
of  human  conditions  are  precarious  and  difficult  and 


CHURCH  AS  AN  ENGINE  OF  PROGRESS        117 

rather  blind,  so  long  as  mutual  hostility  or  suspicion 
persists  among  the  branches  of  the  Christian  Church. 

Either  corporate  action  towards  amelioration  is  im- 
possible, or  the  Church,  in  the  most  comprehensive 
sense,  should  be  the  most  powerful  army  for  good  in 
existence.  Its  ministers  are  like  officers  distributed 
throughout  the  country,  with  social  prestige  and  the 
attentive  ear  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  more 
leisured  and  opulent  classes;  these  Officers  should  be 
engaged,  even  more  than  at  present,  in  training  and 
enlarging  and  disciplining  the  forces  of  progress, 
ready  for  a  re-birth  of  society. 

Herein  lies,  I  believe,  the  most  vital  reform  of  all; 
but  it  is  not  a  reform  that  can  be  procured  by  direct 
aim;  it  must  arrive  spontaneously  after  attraction  of 
the  best  and  ablest  men  to  the  ministry.  The  nation 
should  demand  the  Ministry  of  its  best  men — in  the 
Church  as  well  as  in  the  Cabinet. 

And  the  reform  contemplated  should  be  real  and 
genuine;  the  Confession  of  sin  repeated  in  ecclesias- 
tical buildings  should  be  no  conventional  and  mean- 
ingless chant,  nor  should  it  be  supposed  to  apply  only 
to  individual  and  personal  sinfulness;  it  should  above 
all,  in  collective  worship,  apply  to  collective  sin, — to 
that  sinfulness  of  society  which  Christ  wrould  de- 
nounce if  he  came  again  among  us.  The  vigour  of 
that  denunciation  would,  I  expect,  eclipse  anything 
now  heard  from  pulpits;  though  it  would,  I  believe, 
take  a  different  and  unexpected  direction,  and  con- 
cern itself  less  with  the  weaknesses  and  follies  and 
half -repented  sins  of  humanity,  than  with  the  greed, 


118  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

the  selfishness,  the  sheer  individualism  and  mammon- 
worship  which  excite  but  occasional  reprobation;  it 
would  attack  the  heartless  and  contented  acquiescence 
in  conditions  which  debase  the  soul  of  a  people  and 
erect  the  extravagant  luxury  of  a  few  on  the  grind- 
ing poverty  of  many. 

In  that  sense  an  acknowledgment  *  of  fault  is  in- 
deed urgently  and  constantly  needed;  but  the  feeling 
should  be  driven  home  and  made  real;  confession 
should  never  be  allowed  to  degenerate  into  an  easy 
perfunctory  form.  The  selfishness  of  society  is  the 
really  burning  sin  of  our  time,  and  it  is  the  more  dan- 
gerous because  so  generally  unrecognised.  It  has 
been  unrecognised  in  the  chancel  as  well  as  in  the 
nave — it  seems  never  to  have  been  adequately  recog- 
nised by  an  Established  Church  as  a  whole — and  to 
this  one  cause  such  a  Church  is  thought  to  owe  much 
of  its  impotence;  to  this  is  due  much  of  the  mistrust 
of  the  Church  by  the  people,  who  have  found  it  in  the 
past  often  against  themselves,  and  siding  with  the 
rich  and  powerful; — an  attitude  singularly  different 
from  that  of  its  Master.  That  inspired  song  the 
''Magnificat"  struck  the  keynote  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity. 

Let  us  freely  and  heartily  admit  that  a  great  in- 
ternal effort  is  now  being  made  to  revive  the  early 
spirit  in  the  Church — the  spirit  of  brotherhood  and 
social  work.  And  yet  there  is  room.  The  enthusiasm 
and  exertion  of  some  Anglican  leaders  are  beyond 
praise,  but  their  spirit  has  not  yet  permeated  the 
whole  mass.     Wherever  the  right  spirit  exists  the 


CHURCH  AS  AN  ENGINE  OF  PROGRESS        119 

people  respond  to  it,  as  they  did  in  a.d.  30.  Christ's 
teachings  frequently  dealt  with  the  subject  of  riches, 
even  then,  when  vast  accumulations  were  hardly  feasi- 
ble, save  in  a  form  accessible  to  the  ravages  of  moth 
and  rust;  but  with  the  invention  of  stocks  and  shares 
the  possibilities  of  property  have  enlarged,  and  his 
denunciations  now  might  be  unexpectedly  welcomed 
by  some  who  do  not  profess  and  call  themselves  Chris- 
tians. There  are  men — men  of  influence  among  the 
artisans — -who  openly  scoff  at  what  they  call  religion, 
who  nevertheless  plead  "not  guilty"  for  the  down- 
trodden victims  of  pernicious  surroundings;  who  em- 
phasise the  fact  that  we  are  our  brothers'  keepers; 
who  really  long  for  a  fairer  and  wholesomer  setting 
for  the  life  of  human  beings,  and  who  have  been  re- 
pelled from  Christianity,  not  by  the  teachings  of 
Christ  himself,  but  by  the  confusions  and  errors  of  his 
nominal  disciples.  These  men  call  out  for  the  clergy 
to  be  "converted  to  Christianity."  What  do  they 
mean?  It  were  perhaps  well  for  ministers  of  all  de- 
nominations to  consider  what  they  mean. 

Doubtless  in  so  speaking  they  are  to  some  extent 
making  the  mistake  illustrated  by  the  above-quoted 
objection  to  unharassed  scientific  work.  For  just  as 
strenuous  intellectual  concentration  needs  eves  tern- 
porarily  shut  to  the  mass  of  avoidable  misery  and 
pain — pain  caused  by  human  stupidity  and  by  almost 
inhuman  selfishness,  to  which  everyone  must  shut  his 
eyes  at  times,  or  life  were  impossible — so  the  clergy 
must  at  times  possess  their  souls  in  peace  and  com- 
fort; they  have  to  minister  to  believers  and  sinners 


120  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

and  saints,  as  well  as  to  contend  against  hypocrites 
and  pharisees  and  servants  of  Mammon.  The  Church 
cannot  only  struggle  and  fight,  it  must  sometimes 
stretch  out  its  hands  towards  the  farther  shore,  un- 
hindered by  differences  and  controversies,  and  un- 
burdened by  the  sense  of  social  misery  and 
degradation.  Not  all  services  need  be  mission  serv- 
ices; every  now  and  then  saints  may  allow  their  souls 
to  expand  in  mystic  worship  of  the  Supreme,  and  may 
aim  at  devout  contemplation  and  ecstacy;  on  certain 
days  their  "Divine  Service"  may  be  limited  to  the 
ecclesiastical  and  esoteric  kind  which  now  all  but 
monopolises  that  splendid  name. 

But  that  must  not  be  the  chief  employment  of  their 
lives;  not  while  present  evils  continue.  The  Church 
must  be  militant  if  it  is  to  become  triumphant;  it 
must  learn  strategy,  and  must  throw  its  forces  in  the 
right  direction.  Right  belief  is  intensely  important, 
but  is  slow  of  attainment,  and  for  the  present  right 
action  is  more  prominently  called  for.  It  is  no  time 
for  vegetating  and  leaf -development :  it  is  fruits  that 
will  be  looked  for.  There  must  be  far  less  of  "Who- 
soever will  be  saved  must  thus  think"  and  far  more 
of  "Whosoever  will  save  others  must  thus  do."  God's 
in  His  heaven  truly,  but  all  is  not  right  with  the 
world.  Books  written  to-day  immerse  us,  and  rightly 
immerse  us,  in  a  welter  of  poverty  and  misery.  The 
bitter  cry  of  the  victims  of  competition,  of  the  out- 
casts of  civilisation,  and  of  the  children  who  are  born 
to  sin  and  wretchedness,  when  they  are  not  born  to 
death, — the  cry  of  multitudes  with  hardly  any  chance 


CHURCH  AS  AN  ENGINE  OF  PROGRESS        121 

of  decent  happiness  and  no  outlook  upon  the  beauty 
of  this  world, — this  cry  must  be  ringing  in  the  ears  of 
God  till  He  cannot  hear  the  chants  of  the  churches, 
however  musically  they  may  be  intoned,  however  fre- 
quently they  may  be  repeated,  and  however  completely 
the  Ornaments-rubic  may  be  obeyed.  The  spirit  of 
greed  is  abroad;  its  net  has  gathered  human  beings 
together  in  heaps,  has  removed  them  from  the  fields 
and  hedgerows,  and  has  forced  them  into  crowded 
dens.  With  success  this  spirit  is  doing  devil's  work; 
it  and  its  ally,  smug  self-satisfied  stupidity,  are  the 
modern  fiends;  these  are  the  Satans  with  which  the 
Church  should  be  fighting. 

What  we  have  to  learn  is  that  the  will  of  God  is  to~ 
be  done  on  earth;  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  to 
be  a  present  kingdom,  here  and  now,  not  relegated \ 
always  to  the  future.     Eternity  is  not  something  in 
the  future,  any  more  than  it  is  something  in  the  past : 
it  extends  into  the  future  and  it  extends  into  the  past  \ 
— without  limit  both  ways, — but  this  is  eternity,  this 
moment  we  are  alive,  and  the  message  of  Christ  re-  f 
lates  to  "is."  not  to  "will  be"    The  present  is  the  only     ^- 
opportunity  for  a  deed.    We  are  to  realise  the  high- 
est here.    If  not  here  in  this  condition,  why  anywhere  | 
in  any  condition?    For  wherever  we  are  will  always 
be  "here,"  and  the  time  will  always  be  "now."     As  I 
soon  as  God's  will  is  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in 
heaven,  a  great  part  of  the  distinction  between  the  two 
states  of  existence  is  abolished.     That  diminution  of  \ 
distinction  is  what  the  terrestrial  Church  has  to  strive 
to  accomplish;  that  is  the  ultimate  object  of  its  in- 


122  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

spiration  and  its  labour:  the  ideal  is  to  be  made  real, 
the  world  is  to  be  transfigured  and  transformed.  The 
task  of  the  priest  is  the  reconciliation,  in  our  conscious- 
ness, of  self,  the  world,  and  God. 

It  is  with  a  knowledge  of  a  mass  of  feeling  and 
effort,  some  of  it  at  present  soured  and  hostile  to- 
wards what  it  used  to  hear  preached  from  pulpits  of 
nearly  every  kind,  but  genuine  in  its  aims  and  its  love 
for  humanity,  that — using  the  word  "Church"  in  the 
broadest  sense,  as  the  combined  and  corporate  society 
of  good  men  in  action, — men  whose  lives  and  energies 
are  devoted  to  the  highest  aims,  in  the  spirit  of  real 
and  effective  and  universal  Christianity — I  urge  that 
if  the  nation  is  to  be  regenerated,  it  must  be  regener- 
ated through  the  agency  of  The  Church.  There  must 
be  a  union  of  effort  among  all  who  are  casting  out 
devils  in  the  one  Name. 

But  how  great  a  change  is  needed!  Contrasting 
the  work  that  is  to  be  done  with  the  means  adopted  in 
too  many  cases  for  avoiding  the  doing  of  it,  a  prophet 
would  be  justified  in  exclaiming  to  the  churches,  and 
to  the  Church  of  this  country,  "Awake  thou  that 
sleepest  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give 
thee  lifer 

Divine  Service 

The  popular  notion  of  Divine  Service  makes  it  con- 
sist of  a  multiplicity  of  so-called  "services/ '  which  are 
too  often  no  service  at  all,  but  recreation  or  sensuous 
enjoyment  to  those  engaged  in  them; — a  kind  of 
service  perhaps  as  unacceptable  to  the  Deity,  under 


CHURCH  AS  AN  ENGINE  OF  PROGRESS        123 

existing  circumstances,  as  those  other  religious  cere- 
monies inveighed  against  by  the  first  Isaiah,  in  a  pe- 
riod of  less  opportunity  and  responsibility  than  the 
present,  when,  as  now,  it  could  be  said  of  a  large  part 
of  society,  "every  one  loveth  gifts  and  followeth  after 
rewards  ..."  and  the  cry  of  the  oppressed  is  not 
heard  even  at  the  temple  altars : 

"To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  .  .  .  who 
hath  required  this  at  your  hands.  .  .  .  Bring  no  more  vain  oblations; 
incense  is  an  abomination  unto  me.  .  .  .  Your  new  moons  and  your 
appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth:  they  are  a  trouble  unto  me;  I  am 
weary  to  bear  them.  .  .  .  When  ye  make  many  prayers  I  will  not 
hear.  Your  hands  are  full  of  blood.  Wash  you,  make  you  clean;  put 
away  the  evil  doings  from  before  mine  eyes;  cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to 
do  well;  seek  justice,  set  right  the  oppressor,  relieve  the  oppressed." 

The  Church  was  not  founded  by  temple  services,  * 
nor  will  it  grow  in  that  way.    An  exceptional  Forty  i 
Days,  for  the  strengthening  of  the  soul,  and  invigor- 
ation  or  insurance  of  its  dominion  over  the  body,  must  f 
be  wholesome  and  right ;  and  other  times  of  seclusion, 
as  means  to  ends,  are  more  than  justified;  but  it  is  as  \ 
means  to  an  end  that  they  should  be  regarded, — and 
the  end  is  nothing  less  than  the  reform  of  social 
abuses,  and  the  rescue  of  humanity  from  the  damning  ( 
conditions  of  hopeless  and  degrading  squalor. 

The  kind  of  society  which  allows  its  children  to  be  t 
befouled  and  degraded  and  brought  up  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  crime,  is  the  kind  of  society  that  should  be  I 
dealt  with  by  the  aid  of  a  millstone  and  a  rope.    If  it 
uses  its  fresh  human  material  as  manure,  it  may  flour-  \ 
ish  in  a  rank  way,  it  may  shoot  up  a  coarse  and  luxur- 
iant growth,  it  may  yield  a  crop  of  millionaires;  but  /  • 


124  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

/  some  kinds  of  fruit  are  too  expensive  for  rational 
cultivation,  some  are  not  altogether  wholesome:  there 

'  are  trees  which  must  be  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the 

\  fire. 

~  Religious  bodies  may  pride  themselves  on  the 
soundness  and  orthodoxy  of  their  beliefs;  but  "he 
that  doeth  righteousness  is  righteous";  and  supposed 
good  beliefs  are  no  compensation  for  bad  results, 
either  in  society  or  in  an  individual.  To  speak 
strictly,  such  results  are  inconsistent  with  healthy  be- 

f  liefs — "do  well  will  follow  thought"  if  the  thought  be 
of  the  right  kind ;  and  there  is  high  authority  for  the 
uselessness  of  merely  crying  Lord,  Lord !    It  is  deeds 

I  far  more  than  creeds  that  are  wanted  now;  or  rather, 
it  is  creeds  interpreted  and  acted  out  in  deeds.  We 
have  to  discover,  but  we  have  also  to  realise.    We  do 

|  not  want  matter  without  form,  any  more  than  we  want 
form  without  matter.     An  idea  must  be  incarnated 

•  before  it  is  effective.  That  is  how  Christianity  was 
founded,  when  the  Logos  was  made  flesh, 

"And  so  the  Word  had  breath  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought." 

ff  Nothing  less  than  a  re-incarnation  of  the  Logos 
I  will  reinvigorate  the  faith  of  Christendom  and  carry 
'  forward  the  salvation  of  mankind.    That  is  the  mean- 

.  ing  of  the  Second  Advent.     It  is  in  our  power  to 

'  make  ready  the  way;  that  is  what  our  enlightenment 
and  education  and  privileges  are  for.     Man,  though 

'  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  is  a  messenger  and  serv- 


CHURCH  AS  AN  ENGINE  OF  PROGRESS        125 

ant  of  God  just  as  truly,  and  his  high  mission  is  mani- 
fest. We  as  a  nation  have  gone  already  into  the  ends 
of  the  earth;  let  us  see  to  it  that  we  understand  and 
carry  out  rightly  our  great  commission,  in  no  narrow 
and  iconoclastic  spirit;  remembering  that,  unless  we 
set  things  right  at  home,  our  teaching  will  be  ineffec- 
tive, and  sarcasm  will  be  the  emotion  excited  by  our 
example.  The  second  incarnation  will  be  in  the  hearts 
of  all  men — a  reign  of  brotherhood  and  love  for  which 
the  heralds  are  already  preparing  their  songs.  A1-] 
ready  there  are  "signs  of  his  coming  and  sounds  of 
his  feet";  and  upon  our  terrestrial  activity  the  date  of 
this  Advent  depends. 


CHAPTER  VII 
SUGGESTIONS  TOWARDS  REFORM 

IF  I  were  challenged  to  say  wherein  I  think  that  an 
improvement  might  be  made  in  the  regulations 
and  arrangements  for  a  National  Christian  Church 
under  present  conditions,  I  should  emphasise  three 
things : 

First,  more  spontaneity  and  less  monotony  in 
Church  service  of  all  kinds,  and  the  abandonment  of 
mechanical  uniformity  in  worship. 

Second,  more  liberal  education  for  Ministers;  and 
the  broadening  and  simplification  of  tests,  so  as  to  ex- 
clude as  few  good  men  as  possible. 

Third,  and  consequent  upon  these  two,  clear- 
sighted recognition  of  the  signs  of  the  times,  study 
and  enlightened  encouragement  of  true  beneficence, 
and  stalwart  opposition  to  all  abuses  of  power. 

I  hesitate  to  enter  into  detail  concerning  these 
things,  and  yet  I  feel  impelled  to  make  the  attempt; 
so,  if  I  proceed,  I  will  do  so  straightforwardly  and 
without  expressed  apology. 

Rubrics 

First,  concerning  regulations  for  the  services  of  the 
Church.    Here  I  plead  not  for  legislation,  but  for  the 

126 


SUGGESTIONS  TOWARD  REFORM  127 

absence  of  legislation — for  the  removal  of  the  close 
and  definite  legislation  which  exists  now. 

Permissively  the  Prayer  Book  can  remain  un- 
changed, with  merely  a  substitution  of  "may"  for 
"shall,"  and  with  the  occasional  iteration  of  words 
stating  that  for  many  centuries  such  and  such  was  the 
practice  of  the  Church, — thereby  indicating  a  respect 
for  historic  continuity;  but  all  sentences  laying  down 
a  prescribed  procedure,  not  as  advisable  only,  but  as 
compulsory — so  that  any  the  least  variation  from  it 
becomes  an  illegality  to  be  proceeded  against  in  law 
courts — should  surely  be  cancelled. 

Within  the  Church  itself  some  rules  can  be  laid 
down,  as  from  time  to  time  may  be  thought  wise  by 
the  several  branches,  but  they  will  not  be  burdensome 
upon  the  conscience.  In  the  Episcopal  branch  the 
Bishops  will  naturally  have  paternal  authority,  which 
doubtless  they  will  exercise  with  moderation  and  wis- 
dom; in  the  Presbyterian  branch  the  Presbytery  will 
have  appropriate  authority;  in  the  Congregational 
branch,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  the  Council;  and  so  on. 
Details  of  practice  and  use  of  formularies  would  thus 
be  decided  on  by  eligible  and  sometimes  competent 
bodies,  who  can  readily  modify  them  from  time  to 
time,  and  can  leave  what  elasticity  they  think  wise ; 
and  Parliament  would  be  relieved  of  a  burdensome 
and  archaic  responsibility. 

The  Prayer  Book,  considered  as  a  legal  document, 
was  drawn  upon  the  assumption  that  any  freedom  or 
elasticity  or  spontaneity  in  conducting  a  service  was 
sure  to  be  misused — not  through  malice  and  wicked- 


128  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

ness,  but  through  ignorance  and  stupidity.  It  is,  in 
fact,  founded  on  mistrust  of  intellectual  or  spiritual 
competence, — mistrust  which  tends  to  justify  itself 
by  reaction  of  the  mechanical  system  itself  upon 
those  constantly  subjected  to  its  constricting  influ- 
ence. It  is  also  based  on  the  idea  that  religious  feel- 
ing is  a  proper  subject  for  legislation,  and  that  it  is 
possible  to  coerce  men's  beliefs,  to  govern  their  in- 
clinations and  control  their  consciences,  by  a  system  of 
rigid  rubies  and  regulations;  whereas  it  is  notorious, 
and  almost  proverbial,  that  if  the  will  to  break  law  is 
active,  the  most  carefully  drafted  clauses  have  ex- 
tremely little  binding  force.  For  their  interpretation 
depends  in  no  sort  on  the  intention  of  those  who 
framed  or  of  those  who  authorised  them;  their  inter- 
pretation can  be  garbled  to  suit  an  emergency,  or  can 
be  adapted  to  a  changed  system  of  opinions. 

For  instance,  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  agreed 
upon  by  Convocation  in  1562  "for  the  avoiding  of 
diversities  of  opinions,"  were  for  the  most  part  drawn 
up  by  Protestants  as  a  bulwark  against  the  Church 
of  Rome — a  defence  against  any  approach  to  the  doc- 
trines of  that  Church  in  certain  well-known  and  fa- 
mous controversies: — such  as,  Scripture  not  the  Rule 
of  faith;  Faith  not  the  sole  Instrument  of  Justifica- 
tion; Infallibility  of  General  Councils;  Purgatory, 
Pardons,  Relics,  Invocation  of  Saints;  five  additional 
Sacraments;  Transubstantiation ;  the  sacrifices  of  the 
Mass.  But  Cardinal  Newman,  while  still  a  minister 
of  the  Church  of  England,  was  able  to  show,  in  his 


SUGGESTIONS  TOWARD  REFORM  129 

famous  Tract  90,  that  the  wording  of  the  Articles, 
when  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  similiarly  Prot- 
estant "Homilies,"  did  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  ex- 
clude the  interpretation  regarded  as  baneful  by  those 
who  formulated  them;  in  fact,  that  the  Articles  lent 
themselves  to  Roman  interpretation.  They  did  not 
indeed  suggest  such  an  interpretation  on  their  sur- 
face, but  they  were  patient  of  it.  He  argued  this 
with  extreme  ingenuity,  and  some  special  pleading, 
but,  as  I  think,  with  a  good  deal  of  success.  Cer- 
tainly he  has  had  followers  who  have  largely  availed 
themselves  of  an  unexpected  and  welcome  elasticity 
in  the  direction  of  Romanism,  thus  unexpectedly  dis- 
covered in,  or  extracted  out  of,  or  perhaps  foisted 
into  what  was  intended  to  be  a  rigidly  Protestant 
document  and  scheme  of  Protestant  theology. 

And  so  it  will  always  be  with  a  living  and  growing 
Church,  or  any  other  organism — quite  irrespective  of 
the  rights  and  wrongs  of  any  particular  controversy 
or  School  of  thought.  If  the  thought  or  School 
exist,  if  living  and  earnest  people  feel  that  truth  and 
progress  lie  in  a  particular  direction,  then,  however 
ultimately  mistaken  they  turn  out  to  be,  no  system  of 
formularies  can  bind  them;  they  will  not  hand  over 
their  conscience  and  their  judgment  to  the  custody  of 
a  past.  They  can  be  loyal  to  a  living  and  present 
spirit  in  the  Church  to-day,  but  not  to  dead  formula- 
ries. These  they  will  either  ignore,  or  will  take  in  a 
non-natural  sense,  or  will  twist  till  they  mean  the  op- 
posite of  what  they  were  intended  to  mean.    A  form 


130  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

of  words  is  usually  capable  of  interpretation  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  living  will;  and  if  not,  it  can  be 
either  ignored  or  altered. 

History  is  familiar  enough  with  obsolete  and  re- 
pealed Statutes :  why  should  the  Statutes  which  regu- 
late   so    vital    a    thing    as    the    professed    National 
Religion    alone    be    free    from    reconsideration    and 
amendment?    If  non-alteration  be  regarded  as  neces- 
sitated by  some  theory, — that  theory  is  a  superstition ; 
the  only  justification   for  rigid  adherence  to  fixed 
forms  is  the  practical  danger  of  licence  and  unset- 
tling of  faith  that  might  result  from  freedom.    That 
is  a  point  of  policy  on  which  it  is  possible  for  reason- 
able people  to  take  opposite  sides,  at  any  particular 
''juncture  or  crisis;  but  it  will  be  generally  admitted 
j  that  a  faith  dependent  on  blinkers  and  fetters  for  its 
(maintenance  is  not  likely  in  a  progressive  age  to  last 
\  many  generations.     Anchorage  to  a  submerged  rock 
is  not  safe  amid  rising  waters. 

Suggestions  Concerning  the  Liturgy 

The  Liturgy  itself  must  be  dealt  with  by  experts, 
and  it  is  barely  proper  for  me  to  make  suggestions; 
but  having  gone  so  far  I  will  hesitate  no  more,  but 
will  proceed  in  brief  and  dogmatic  fashion  to  say 
what  I  feel  constrained  to  say.  For  it  is  an  admitted 
fact  that  the  Church  of  England  is  less  in  touch  with 
the  people  than  it  used  to  be,  and  this  is  not  likely  to 
be  wholly  and  solely  the  fault  of  the  people.  Indeed 
it  may  be  due  to  unwisdom  rather  than  to  fault  of 
any  kind. 


SUGGESTIONS  TOWARD  REFORM  131 

At  present  both  the  Daily  Services  are  supposed 
to  open  with  the  note  of  personal  sin.  But  it  is  to  a 
great  extent  unreal,  and  the  declaration  of  absolution 
follows  far  too  cheaply  and  easily.  Moreover,  even 
if  such  a  beginning  is  appropriate  sometimes,  or  to 
some  people,  it  is  not  always  and  equally  appropriate ; 
and  when  constantly  repeated  such  confession  be- 
comes merely  monotonous,  exciting  no  feeling  or  in- 
telligence whatever. 

If  a  service  is  to  be  efficacious  against  sin,  it  should 
deal  with  it  far  more  seriously  and  continuously.  If 
felt  as  a  reality  sin  is  no  light  matter,  and  should  not 
be  casually  slurred  over.  During  such  a  service, 
dominated  by  the  sense  of  personal  sinfulness  and 
contrition,  the  confession  of  the  Communion  service 
is  likely  to  be  more  effective  than  the  other.  The 
Litany  would  be  an  appropriate  continuation :  many 
things  should  precede  a  declaration  of  Remission. 

But  there  should  be  more  than  one  form  of  service : 
there  might  be  at  least  three  alternative  forms — ■ 
sometimes  one,  sometimes  another  to  be  used.  One 
form  of  service  should  sound  a  different  note;  it 
might  be  a  service  not  of  contrition  but  of  praise. 
It  might  open  with  the  Benedictus,  continue  with  the 
General  Thanksgiving,  with  the  Te  Deum,  the  Can- 
tate,  or  the  Venite — without  the  Jewish  ending  if 
possible — and  so  forth.  And  in  all  these  services  the 
great  and  eloquent  short  prayers  need  never  be  omit- 
ted, such  as  the  prayer  of  St.  Chrysostom,  the  Col- 
lects for  Peace  and  for  Grace,  and,  when  appropriate, 
the  Evening  Collects,  as  also  that  for  the  special  day, 


132  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

together  with  Epistle  and  Gospel  and  of  course  the 
Lessons. 

But  the  multiplicity  and  wearisome  number  of  ex- 
tracts from  the  Psalter  might  be  mitigated  with  ad- 
vantage. The  Psalms  for  the  day  might  be  omitted 
altogether.  There  can  be  no  need  to  work  through 
the  whole  Psalter  every  month :  it  is  a  useless  burden ; 
besides,  a  few  of  the  Psalms  are  hardly  edifying  in 
worship,  however  instructive  they  are  as  historical 
and  biographical  lessons. 

At  times  of  stress  or  anxiety  a  special  selection  of 
prayers  might  be  made,  and  at  all  times  extempore 
and  spontaneous  prayer  should  be  permissible.  It  is 
profoundly  wrong  that  a  petition  from  the  heart  of 
a  minister  of  God  is  never  to  be  uttered  during  Divine 
service.  It  is  an  edict  of  suppression  and  impotence 
for  the  reading  desk:  of  dulness  and  starvation  for 
the  pew.  "For  a  certain  measure  of  variety  arrests 
and  engages  the  attention  of  worshippers,  and  sus- 
tains their  interest."  The  very  name  "reading  desk" 
is  full  of  wrong  suggestions.  The  lectern  is  appro- 
priately named,  and  so  is  the  pulpit,  but  the  spirit  of 
genuine  supplication  should  brood  over  at  least  a  part 
of  the  service. 

Another  form  of  service — where  forms  are  used — ■ 
might  be  dominated  by  the  idea  of  collective  or  social 
struggle  and  error,  by  the  sense  of  national  and  cor- 
porate sin,  by  effort  after  better  conditions  of  exist- 
ence for  others,  and  by  the  spirit  of  public  service. 
Here  would  come  the  prayer  for  Royalty,  for  Parlia- 
ment, for  the  Clergy,  for  all  people ;  as  well  as  others 


SUGGESTIONS  TOWARD  REFORM  133 

appropriately  chosen,  and  many  added  to  suit  the 
needs  of  the  time. 

At  all  times  it  is  appropriate  to  remember  the  sick 
and  suffering,  the  prisoners  and  captives,  the  deso- 
late and  oppressed;  just  as  it  is  always  natural  to 
pray  for  peace ;  and  in  these  cases  prayer  is  not  merely 
intercessory  prayer,  but  is  a  petition  for  the  impulse 
ourselves  to  do  what  lies  in  our  own  power  to  aid  in 
these  so  touching  and  so  accessible  ranges  of  activity 
in  direct  human  service. 

The  keynote  of  each  service  should  be  reality. 
There  should  be  no  vain  repetition  and  no  mere  form- 
ulae recited  in  haste  without  attention  to  meaning. 
At  present  far  too  much  is  attempted — far  too  much 
in  quantity, — and  this  perhaps  is  responsible  for  the 
hurry  and  apparent  desire  to  get  through.  Surely 
everything  said  should  be  said  deliberately  and  im- 
pressively. Possibly,  however,  the  present  manner 
of  utterance  is  not  really  or  solely  dependent  on  the 
amount  to  be  got  through  in  the  time,  but  is  a  relic 
of  the  Roman  practice  of  reciting  prayers  in  Latin, 
so  as  not  to  be  understanded  of  the  common  people; 
with  the  object  apparently  of  exciting  vague  emotion 
undiluted  with  intelligence.  The  practice  is  vener- 
able— but  it  is  hardly  consistent  with  the  genius  of 
the  Church  of  England.  Intelligibility  throughout 
is  surely  not  a  thing  to  be  deprecated,  if  it  can  be 
secured.  To  this  end  the  service  should  be  short  in 
length,  even  though  not  always  short  in  time.  Non 
multa  sed  multum  applies  intensely  to  the  effective 
use  of  a  Liturgy.     A  quantity  gabbled  through  is 


134  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

useless  and  unimpressive.  A  small  amount  really 
driven  home  is  far  more  effective.  The  Te  Deum  is 
specially  effective  when  sung  slowly  and  deliberately. 
It  was  so  sun#  in  more  than  one  church  at  the  last 
Declaration  of  Peace. 

Above  all,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  with  its  brief  and 
profound  sentences,  is  not  properly  treated  when  sub- 
jected to  the  gabble  of  a  choir.  Every  sentence  in- 
volves thought.  The  single  phrase  'Thy  Kingdom 
come"  speaks  volumes,  and  by  itself  is  sufficient  for  a 
morning's  worship.  As  a  musician  takes  a  theme  and 
develops  it  fugally  and  antiphonally  with  devices  of 
augmentation  and  diminution  and  with  illuminating 
counterpoint,  so  could  such  a  theme  as  this  be  made  to 
dominate  and  re-appear  throughout  a  service.  The 
repetition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  several  times  in  an 
hour  signifies  the  intention  to  use  it  as  a  sort  of  re- 
frain; but  as  a  refrain  it  is  ineffective,  the  repetition 
is  far  too  mechanical  and  careless.  The  clauses  are 
worthy  of  better  treatment  than  that. 

Take  such  a  clause  as  "Thy  will  be  done"; — it  em- 
braces the  whole  of  religion.  If  I  were  a  musician  I 
wTould  set  the  Lord's  Prayer  to  music,  and  wTith 
clashes  of  instruments  and  with  silences  would  bring 
out  a  part  of  its  meaning  in  unmistakable  manner.1 
The  opening  phrase  "Our  Father  which  art  in 
heaven"  may  in  its  full  form  exhibit  signs  of  liturg- 
ical growth  or  addition,  but  the  note  "Father,"  the 
dominant  of  all  the  chords,  is  authentic  enough.     It 

i  When  I  wrote  this  "  The  Kingdom  "  had  not  been  produced,  and  I 
did  not  then  know  the  scheme  of  Sir  Edward  Elgar's  work. 


SUGGESTIONS  TOWARD  REFORM  135 

is  all  that  appears  in  Luke    (Hort  and  Westcott's 
text),  and  it  is  enough. 

Wider  Education 

We  need  only  refer  in  very  general  terms  to  the 
sort  of  education  appropriate  to  a  candidate  for  the 
Ministry  of  the  Gospel.  He  must  be  instructed  in 
professional  subjects,  of  course — I  say  nothing  about 
those ;  but  it  is  plain  that  if  he  is  to  have  any  influence 
on  the  thought  of  his  time,  he  must  not  be  ignorant 
of  that  thought.  If  he  is  to  mix  with  people,  and 
adapt  himself  to  various  conditions  of  men,  he  must 
be  able  to  retain  their  respect.  Immersion  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  scholastic  theology  alone  will  not  suffice. 
The  Bible  is  a  literature  with  which  he  must  be  famil- 
iar, but  he  must  not  be  a  man  of  one  book.  If  he 
knows  only  the  Bible,  he  will  not  know  that.  A  broad 
and  general  education  should  be  his,  and  the  discov- 
eries of  his  age  should  not  be  alien  to  him.  In  the 
course  of  his  career  he  is  bound  to  meet  argumentative 
sceptics;  men  sometimes  of  narrow  sympathies,  but 
occasionally  of  fairly  wide  reading.  These  he  should 
be  able  to  encounter  on  their  own  ground. 

It  is  true  that  to  take  a  leading  position,  and  to 
grasp  a  considerable  range  of  human  knowledge,  is 
not  given  to  all;  there  must  be  some  whose  lives  are 
cast  amid  simpler  surroundings,  and  who  will  there 
feel  more  at  home.  That  is  well ;  but  we  are  consider- 
ing the  ideal  up  to  which  a  few  can  be  trained,  while 
the  majority  will  rise  towards  it  as  far  as  they  can, 
though  they  fall  short  of  attainment.    The  ideal  for 


136  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

a  minister  of  Christ  to-day  is  not  represented  by  that 
held  out  in  the  charge  of  the  Ordination  service,  "ap- 
ply yourselves  wholly  to  this  one  thing,  and  draw  all 
your  cares  and  studies  this  way;"  it  is  not  enough,  nor 
is  it  even  wise,  to  limit  study  to  one  thing,  and  to  for- 
sake and  set  aside  all  other  studies. 

Certainly  something  just  and  needful  is  intended, 
by  that  warning  against  worldly  cares  and  studies, 
but  it  is  liable  to  be  misunderstood.  And  even  in  af- 
fairs of  business,  it  may  be  argued  that  as  so  many 
of  the  clergy  have  to  address  men  of  business,  it 
would  be  wise  for  them  not  to  be  wholly  ignorant  and 
incompetent  even  in  that  atmosphere.  It  is  no  easy 
service  which  the  nation  demands  of  its  religious 
teachers — it  is  the  highest  and  most  difficult  possible; 
and  the  very  best  and  ablest  men  are  needed  for  the 
work,  if  it  is  to  be  done  properly.  At  present  many 
are  deflected  to  other  careers.  In  some  cases  the 
deflection  is  due  to  attraction  elsewhere;  but  in  too 
many  it  must  happen  that  a  faithful  and  competent 
man  is  either  consciously  or  unconsciously  repelled  by 
the  demands  and  injunctions  placed  in  his  way, — by 
the  attempt  made  to  scare  his  present  conscience  or  to 
snare  his  future  one.  He  knows  that  the  critical 
spirit  is  not  the  spirit  of  worship;  but  he  knows  also 
that,  however  successfully  his  critical  faculty  may  be 
put  to  sleep  for  a  time,  it  will  rise  and  torment  him 
later  on  if  he  abandons  his  birthright  of  growth  and 
freedom.    So  he  chooses  another  vocation. 


SUGGESTIONS  TOWARD  REFORM  137 

Tests 

And  now,  what  about  tests?  What  tests  should  be 
applied  to  candidates  for  ordination,  so  as  to  exclude 
self-seeking  hypocrites  and  stealthy  infidels?  What- 
ever words  are  used,  the  test-formula  should  be  said 
by  the  candidate  himself,  not  by  another  for  him ;  and 
it  should  be  said  without  prompting.  The  amount  of 
memory  needed,  for  a  simple  rehearsal  like  that,  is  not 
too  much  to  expect  from  a  man  to  whom  preaching 
and  the  cure  of  souls  is  to  be  entrusted.  A  simple 
form  should  suffice:  why  should  not  the  following  be 
held  sufficient? 

Here,  solemnly  in  the  face  of  this  congregation,  I 
declare  before  Almighty  God,  to  whose  holy  will  I 
entirely  submit  myself,  that  I  long  for  Christ's  ideal 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  upon  earth;  and,  God 
helping  me,  I  will  with  all  my  power  and  ability 
strive  to  this  end  and  to  no  other,  with  such  wisdom 
as  it  may  please  the  Holy  Spirit  to  confer  upon  me; 
for  whose  guidance  I  will  always  pray  to  the  Father, 
in  the  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Such  a  declaration,  made  in  full  voice  and  with 
uplifted  hand,  would  be  far  more  solemn  and  impres- 
sive as  an  answer  to  the  question  whether  he  thinks 
he  is  truly  called  to  the  ministry  of  the  Church,  than 
the  present  curious  expected  answer,  "I  think  so." 

Some  further  declaration  on  the  secular  side, 
against  the  domination  of  any  foreign  potentate  in 
this  realm,  and  some  precautionary  statement  against 
Jesuitical  interpretation  and  underground  scheming, 


138  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

would  seem  to  be  necessary  also.  Moreover,  it  would 
be  desirable  so  to  legislate  that  no  weapon  of  super- 
stition could  ever  be  wielded,  by  Church  authority,  so 
as  to  inflict  on  the  laity  that  element  of  compulsion 
from  which  the  clergy  had  been  freed.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  certain  anti-English  auricular  practices 
will  never  be  permitted  in  the  National  Church,  how- 
ever comprehensive  it  may  become. 

Re-incorporation 

This  article  ought  to  close  with  practical  sugges- 
tions as  to  how  Nonconformist  bodies  are  to  be  re- 
incorporated into  the  National  Church ;  but  that  must 
be  left  to  others.  I  know  that  at  the  time  of  writing 
an  unexpected  and  most  regrettable  recrudescence  of 
hostilities  has  arisen  between  the  State  Church  and  the 
Free  Churches — animosity  breaking  out  over  the 
primary  education  of  the  children  of  the  poor — show- 
ing that  the  pugnacious  spirit  was  only  dormant,  and 
that  any  immediately  practical  suggestions  towards 
general  Christian  co-operation  would  be  untimely. 

But  surely  such  a  state  of  things  can  only  be  tem- 
porary. Either  some  mutual  understanding  is  possi- 
ble on  such  a  subject,  or  the  country  is  on  the  verge  of 
an  era  of  secularism. 

It  may  be  that  thorough  union  will  come  only 
through  disestablishment — that  a  truly  comprehen- 
sive National  Church  is  impossible.  That  is  one  way 
towards  freedom  of  conscience.  Either  the  State 
Church  must  be  enlarged,  broadened,  and  liberated — 


SUGGESTIONS  TOWARD  REFORM  139 

freed  from  exclusive  dignities  too  dearly  bought, — 
or  it  must  cease  to  be  a  State  Church. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  forecast  the  course  of  history: 
all  that  I  am  concerned  to  urge  is  union,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  fighting  a  common  foe,  cessation  of  interne- 
cine quarrels,  unison  of  effort  among  all  the  branches 
of  the  Church  of  Christ.  To  me  it  seems  that,  as  soon 
as  artificial  restrictions  and  disabilities  are  removed, 
the  re-incorporation  will  be  almost  automatic — or 
would  be  so  were  it  not  for  the  question  of  pre-restora- 
tion  endowments.  If  a  money  question  is  all  that 
would  then  hinder  union — if  there  is  nothing  more 
serious  and  fundamental  than  property  to  be  con- 
sidered— it  would  be  a  fact  worth  finding  out. 

My  attention  has  just  been  called  to  certain  articles 
on  Church  and  State,  issued  in  1891  by  Dr.  Martin- 
eau  as  vol.  ii.  of  his  collected  Essays,  Reviews,  and 
Addresses.  Some  of  them  deal  with  this  very  matter, 
especially  the  essay  called  "The  National  Church  as  a 
Federal  Union."  He  pointed  out  the  inconsistency 
of  a  Church  priding  itself,  simultaneously,  both  on 
its  rigorous  uniformity  and  on  the  width  of  the  range 
of  its  belief;  and  says  that  while  the  Acts  of  Uni- 
formity remain,  the  work  of  the  Church  will  be 
honeycombed  by  the  canker  of  unveracity  and  self- 
sophistication. 

I  will  not  repeat  his  arguments  and  proposals,  for 
whether  those  particular  proposals  are  hopeless  or 
not,  the  spirit  of  his  vision  of  the  unity  of  Christen- 
dom— the  longing  to  see  the  various  folds  all  one 
flock,  in  accordance  with  the  parting  prayer  of  Christ, 


140  CORPORATE  WORSHIP  AND  SERVICE 

"for  them  which  shall  helieve  on  me  .  .  .  that  thev 
all  may  be  one" — remains  as  real  as  ever.  Moreover, 
many  of  the  non-established  Churches  are  riper  for 
union  among  themselves  now  than  they  were  even  a 
short  time  ago ;  and  I  will  quote  the  concluding  words 
of  the  preface  to  the  volume  containing  Martineau's 
ecclesiastical  essays: 

"I  cannot  withdraw  a  protest,  however  hopeless 
it  may  seem,  against  allowing  the  Christian  Church 
to  remain  a  mere  cluster  of  rival  orthodoxies,  disown- 
ing and  repelling  each  other;  while,  in  the  inmost 
heart  of  all,  secret  affections  live  and  pray,  with  eye 
upturned  to  the  same  Infinite  Perfection,  and  tears 
let  fall  for  the  same  universal  sorrows." 


SECTION    III— THE    IMMORTALITY    OF 

THE  SOUL 

The  substance  of  this  section  was  given  as  the  first  lecture  on  the 
Drew  foundation  established  in  connexion  with  Hackney  College,  Lon- 
don, under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Forsyth. 


141 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Part  I 

"If  a  man  is  shut  up  in  a  house,  the  transparency  of  the  windows  is 
an  essential  condition  of  his  seeing  the  sky.  But  it  would  not  be  prudent 
to  infer  that,  if  he  walked  out  of  the  house,  he  could  not  see  the  sky 
because  there  was  no  longer  any  glass  through  which  he  might  see  it." — 
M'Taggart,  Some  Dogmas  of  Religion,  p.  105. 

DR.  M'TAGGART,  in  his  book  called  Some 
Dogmas  of  Religion,  from  which  I  have  taken 
the  excellent  apologue  *  prefixed  as  a  sort  of  motto  to 
this  article,  says  some  things  with  which  I  am  not  able 
wholly  to  agree.  I  should  like  to  deal  with  these  at 
greater  length  in  some  other  connexion,  but  mean- 
while I  will  quote  one  of  them.  In  his  chapter  on 
Human  Immortality  he  says  that  an  affirmative  an- 
swer to  the  question  "Has  man  an  immortal  soul?" 
would  be  absurd.  He  wishes  to  maintain  that  man 
is  a  soul  rather  than  that  he  has  one ;  because  the  pos- 
sessive case  would  indicate,  he  says,  that  the  man 
himself  was  his  body,  or  was  something  that  died  with 
the  body,  and  that  he  owned  something,  not  himself, 
which  at  death  was  set  free. 

i  This  must  not  be  understood  as  sustaining  what  Mr.  Haldane  de- 
risively calls  the  "window"  theory  of  the  senses,  as  if  they  were  apertures 
through  which  an  inner  man  looked  out  at  an  alien  universe:  a  parable 
must  not  be  pressed  unduly. 

143 


144  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

But  if  we  make  the  correlative  statement,  and  say- 
that  "man  has  a  body,"  surely  we  are  stating  an  un- 
deniable truth.  And  as  to  what  the  man  himself  is — 
I  apprehend  that  he  is  a  union  of  soul  and  body;  and 
that  without  the  one  or  the  other  he  is  incomplete  as 
a  man,  and  becomes  something  else — a  corpse  per- 
haps, a  spirit  perhaps,  or  it  may  be  both.  But 
whereas  the  two  were  necessarily  united  during  the 
man's  life,  death  separates  them;  and  the  final  pro- 
duct, whatever  it  is,  can  be  described  as  "man"  no 
longer.  Hence  the  form  of  the  question  preferred 
by  Dr.  M'Taggart,  "Are  men  immortal?"  does  not 
seem  to  me  so  appropriate  as  the  more  popular  and 
antique  form,  "Is  the  soul  immortal?"  For  surely 
without  hesitation  everybody  must  give  to  his  ques- 
tion, about  man,  the  answer:  "Not  wholly,"  or  "Not 
every  part  of  him."  Part  of  what  constitutes  human 
nature  is  certainly  mortal.  On  one  side  man  un- 
doubtedly  belongs  to  the  animal  kingdom,  and  flour- 
ishes on  this  planet,  the  Earth,  by  aid  of  particles  of 
terrestrial  matter  which  he  utilises  for  that  purpose. 

By  the  soul,  then,  we  must  mean  that  part  of  man 
which  is  dissociated  from  the  body  at  death :  that  part 
which  is  characteristic  of  a  living  man  as  distinct  from 
a  corpse.  It  may  be  said  that  it  is  really  more  an 
inter-relation  than  a  part,  and  that  this  inter-relation 
is  what  is  meant  by  vitality ;  so  that  it  has  been  roundly 
asserted  that  the  apparently  disappeared  "vitality"  is 
a  nonentity  or  figment  of  the  imagination,  and  that  to 
speak  of  it  as  still  existing  is  like  speaking  of  the 


THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT     145 

"horologity"  of  a  clock  which  someone  has  smashed 
with  a  hammer. 

Very  well,  admitting  that  vitality  is  a  mere  relation 
between  the  body  and  something  else,  it  is  just  the 
nature  of  this  "something  else"  that  we  are  discussing; 
and  it  is  no  help  to  start  b}r  assuming  that  this  dissoci- 
ated and  perhaps  imaginary  portion  is  the  man  him- 
self, any  more  than  it  is  helpful  to  start  with  the 
equally  gratuitous  assumption  that  the  visible  and 
tangible  body  is  the  man  himself. 

The  vanished  constituent  with  its  attributes  mav 
turn  out  to  be  more  intimately  characteristic  of,  and 
essential  to,  the  man's  real  nature  and  existence,  than 
is  the  material  instrument  or  organ  which  has  been 
discarded  without  having  disappeared :  they  may  turn 
out  to  have  a  more  permanent  and  therefore  a  more 
real  existence  than  the  temporary  vehicle  which  served 
to  manifest  those  attributes  and  properties  during 
their  short  tenure  of  earth  life ;  they  may  be  more  es- 
pecially the  seat  of  his  personality  and  individuality; 
— but  those  are  just  the  things  which  are  subject- 
matter  for  debate,  and  they  must  not  be  postulated  a 
priori. 

As  a  matter  of  nomenclature,  I  want  to  discrimi- 
nate between  the  term  "vitality"  and  the  term  "life"; 
to  use  the  former  as  signifying  a  union  or  relation  be- 
tween the  body  and  something  else,  and  the  latter  to 
denote  the  unknown  entity  which  by  interaction  with 
material  particles  is  responsible  for  their  vitality. 
True,  life,  thus  defined,  is  a  portion  or  partial  aspect 


146  THE   IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

of  what  is  often  spoken  of  as  "soul,"  but  the  term  life 
can  be  used  by  many  to  whom  some  of  the  associations 
of  the  more  comprehensive  term  are  objectionable. 

The  first  simple  and  important  truth  that  must  be 
insisted  on,  is  the  commonplace  but  often  ignored  and 
even  denied  fact,  that  there  is  nothing  immortal  or 
persistent  about  the  material  instrument  of  our  pres- 
ent senses,  except  the  atoms  of  which  it  is  composed. 

Any  notion  that  these  same  atoms  will  at  some 
future  date  be  re-collected  and  united  with  the  dis- 
sociated and  immaterial  portion,  so  as  to  constitute 
once  more  the  complete  man  as  he  appeared  here  on 
earth,  who  is  thereafter  to  last  for  ever, — any  notion 
of  that  sort,  though  most  unfortunately  believed,  or 
at  least  taught,  by  one  great  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church,  is  a  superstition,  not  by  any  means  yet  really 
and  thoroughly  extinct  or  without  influence  on  senti- 
ment, even  in  quarters  where  it  may  be  denied  in 
words.  It  is  too  much  to  expect  that  is  should  be  so 
extinct. 

Nevertheless,  the  teaching  of  natural  science  is  in 
accordance  with  the  teaching  of  common  sense  in  this 
matter.  The  present  body  is  wholly  composed  of  ter- 
restrial particles;  it  consists  of  atoms  of  matter  col- 
lected from  food  and  air,  and  arranged  in  a  certain 
complicated  and  characteristic  f«rm.  The  elemental 
atoms  are  first  combined  into  the  complex  aggregate 
called  protoplasm,  which  is  an  unstable  compound 
whose  chemical  constitution  is  at  present  unknown, 
but  whose  property  it  is  to  be  always  in  a  state  of  flux : 
it  is  not  rigid  or  stagnant  or  fixed,  but  is  constantly 


THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT    147 

breaking  down  into  simpler  constituents  on  one  side, 
and  constantly  being  renewed  or  built  up  on  the  other, 
so  that  it  has  a  kind  of  life-history,  for  a  certain  per- 
iod. This  period  of  activity,  in  any  given  case,  lasts 
as  long  as  the  balance  between  association  and  disso- 
ciation continues.  While  the  balance  is  tilting  in 
favour  of  assimilation,  we  have  the  period  of  youth 
and  growth ;  when  the  balance  begins  to  tilt  in  favour 
of  disintegration,  we  have  the  commencement  of  old 
age  and  decay;  until  at  a  certain,  or  rather  an  uncer- 
tain, stage,  the  disintegrating  forces  gain  a  final 
victory,  and  assimilation  wholly  and  sometimes  sud- 
denly ceases.  Then  presently  and  by  slow  degrees  the 
residue  of  protoplasm  left  in  the  body — unless  it  is 
speedily  incorporated  into  some  other  animal  or  plant 
— is  resolved  into  similar  and  simpler  compounds,  and 
ultimately  into  inorganic  constituents;  and  so  is  re- 
stored to  mother  Earth,  whence  it  sprang. 

What,  then,  can  be  legitimately  meant  by  the 
phrase  Resurrection  of  the  body?  Well  it  is  highly 
desirable  to  disentangle  the  element  of  truth  which 
underlies  ancient  beliefs  and  is  the  condition  of  their 
durability;  and,  whatever  may  be  the  case  with  other 
forms  of  religion,  it  is  clear  that  Christianity  both  by 
its  doctrines  and  its  ceremonies  rightly  emphasises  the 
material  aspect  of  existence.  For  it  is  founded  upon 
the  idea  of  incarnation;  and  its  belief  in  some  sort  of 
bodily  resurrection  is  based  on  the  idea  that  every  real 
personal  existence  must  have  a  double  aspect — not 
spiritual  alone,  nor  physical  alone,  but  in  some  way 
both.     Such  an  opinion,  in  a  refined  form,  is  common 


148  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

to  many  systems  of  philosophy  and  is  by  no  means 
out  of  harmony  with  seience. 

Christianity,  therefore,  reasonably  supplements  the 
mere  survival  of  a  discarnate  spirit,  a  homeless  wan- 
derer or  melancholy  ghost,  with  the  warm  and  com- 
fortable clothing  of  something  that  may  legitimately 
be  spoken  of  as  a  "body";  that  is  to  say  it  postulates 
a  supersensually  appreciable  vehicle  or  mode  of  mani- 
festation, fitted  to  subserve  the  needs  of  future  ex- 
istence as  our  bodies  subserve  the  needs  of  terrestrial 
life:  an  etherial  or  other  entity  constituting  the  per- 
sistent "other  aspect,"  and  fulfilling  some  of  the  func- 
tions which  the  atoms  of  terrestrial  matter  are  con- 
strained to  fulfil  now.  And  we  may  assume,  as  con- 
sonant with  or  even  as  part  of  Christianity,  the  doc- 
trine of  the  dignity  and  sacramental  character  of  some 
physical  or  quasi-material  counterpart  of  every  spirit- 
ual essence. 

But  though  some  such  connexion  is  essential,  any 
actual  instance  of  it  may  be  accidental  and  temporary. 
Take  our  present  incarnation  as  an  example.  We 
display  ourselves  to  mankind  in  the  garb  of  certain 
clothes,  artificially  constructed  of  animal  and  vegeta- 
ble materials,  and  in  the  form  of  a  certain  material 
organism,  put  together  by  processes  of  digestion  and 
assimilation  and  likewise  composed  of  terrestrial  ma- 
terials. The  source  of  these  chemical  compounds  is 
evidently  not  important ;  nor  is  their  special  character 
maintained.  Whether  they  formed  part  of  sheep  or 
birds  or  fish  or  plants,  they  are  assimilated  and  be- 
come part  of  us ;  being  arranged  by  our  subconscious 


THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT     149 

activities  and  vital  processes  into  appropriate  form, 
just  as  truly  as  other  materials  are  consciously  woven 
into  garments,  no  matter  what  their  origin.  More- 
over, just  as  our  clothes  wear  out  and  require  darning 
and  patching,  so  our  bodies  wear  out;  the  particles 
are  in  continual  flux,  each  giving  place  to  others  and 
being  constantly  discarded  and  renewed.  The  identity 
of  the  actual  or  instantaneous  body  is  therefore  an 
affair  of  no  importance:  the  body  which  finally  dies 
is  no  more  fully  representative  of  the  individual  than 
any  of  the  other  bodies  which  have  gradually  been  dis- 
carded en  route:  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  per- 
sist any  more  than  thev:  the  individualitv,  if  there  is 
one,  must  lie  deeper  than  any  particular  body,  and 
must  belong  to  whatever  it  is  which  put  the  particles 
together  in  this  shape  and  not  another. 

There  is  nothing  at  all  similar  to  this  automatic  de- 
cay and  replacement,  this  preservation  of  form  amid 
diversity  of  particles,  in  the  mechanism  of  a  clock. 
All  that  its  "horologity"  could  mean  would  be  the 
special  assemblage  or  grouping  of  parts  which  enables 
it  to  fulfil  certain  functions  till  it  wears  out,  or  so 
long  as  its  worn  parts  are  periodically  replaced  by  the 
clockmaker.  The  "vitality"  of  an  organism  means 
this  and  more,  for  it  can  replace  its  own  worn  parts. 
A  clock  has  nothing  of  personal  identity,  it  is  not  a 
good  illustration  of  a  living  organism.  The  identity 
of  a  river  is  a  much  closer  analogy ;  and  many  are  the 
associations  which  have  accordingly  gathered  round 
the  names  "Tiber,"  "Ganges,"  "Nile."  Rivers  have 
always  had  attributed  to  them  a  kind  of  poetic  per- 


150  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

sonality,  though  no  one  can  have  really  supposed  them 
to  possess  genuine  life. 

I  wish  here  to  make  a  short  digression  in  order  to 
say  that  the  old  and  true  statement  that  "everything 
flows  and  nothing  is  stagnant,"  thus  conspicuously  ex- 
emplified by  the  material  basis  of  life,  need  not  in  the 
least  signify,  as  it  is  sometimes  taken  to  signify,  that 
everything  is  evanescent  and  nothing  is  permanent; 
still  less  than  everything  is  fanciful  and  nothing  is 
real.  The  ancient  aphorism  of  the  inspired  Hera- 
clitus  makes  a  statement  about  existence  which  is 
vitally  and  comprehensively  true;  and  it  is  a  truth 
which  constitutes  the  keynote  of  evolution. 

To  return.  The  more  frankly  and  clearly  the  truth 
about  the  body  is  realised,  namely,  that  the  body  is  a 
flowing  and  constantly  changing  episode  in  material 
history,  having  no  more  identity  than  has  a  river,  no 
identity  whatever  in  its  material  constitution,  but  only 
in  its  form, — identity  only  in  the  personal  expression 
or  manifestation  which  is  achieved  through  the  agency 
of  a  fresh  and  constantly  differing  sequence  of  ma- 
terial particles, — the  more  frankly  all  this  is  realised, 
the  better  for  our  understanding  of  most  of  the  prob- 
lems of  life  and  being. 

The  body  is  the  instrument  or  organ  of  the  soul: 
and  in  its  special  form  and  aggregation  is  certainly 
temporary, — exceedingly  temporary,  for  in  the  most 
durable  cases  it  lasts  only  about  a  thousand  months — 
a  mere  instant  in  the  life-history  of  a  planet. 

But  if  the    body  is    thus    trivial  and    temporary, 


THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT     151 

though  while  it  lasts  most  beautiful  and  useful  and 
wonderful,  what  is  it  that  puts  it  together  and  keeps 
it  active  and  retains  it  fairly  constant  through  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  climate  and  condition,  and  through  all 
the  fluctuations  of  material  constitution? 

For  remember  that  we  are  now  not  dealing  with  the 
human  body  alone.  All  animals  have  bodies  and  so 
have  plants.  All  that  has  been  said,  of  the  tem- 
porary character  of  the  material  aggregate  animated 
by  life,  applies  to  a  vast  variety  of  organisms,  many 
of  which  can  be  encountered  on  the  earth :  not  to  speak 
of  the  myriads  of  other  worlds. 

What  causes  the  very  same  particles  to  be  incor- 
porated first  into  the  form  of  a  blade  of  grass,  then 
into  the  form  of  a  sheep,  then  into  the  form  of  a  man ; 
then  into  the  form  of  some  law  invertebrates — "politic 
worms"  (for  whose  existence,  however,  in  normal 
cases  there  is,  I  believe,  no  biological  authority), — 
then  perhaps  into  a  bird,  then  once  more  into  vegeta- 
tion— perhaps  a  tree?  What  is  it  that  combines  and 
arranges  the  particles,  so  that  if  absorbed  by  root  or 
leaves  they  correspond  to  and  form  the  tissue  of  an 
oak,  if  picked  up  by  talons,  they  help  to  feed  the  mus- 
cles of  an  eagle,  if  cooked  for  dinner,  they  enter  into 
the  nerves  and  brain  of  a  man?  What  is  the  control- 
ling entity  in  each  case,  which  causes  each  to  have  its 
own  form  and  not  another,  and  preserves  the  form 
constant  amid  the  widest  diversity  of  particles? 

We  call  it  life,  we  call  it  soul,  we  call  it  by  various 
names,  and  we  do  not  know  what  it  is.     But  common 


152  THE   IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

sense  rebels  against  its  being  "nothing";  nor  has  any 
genuine  science  presumed  to  declare  that  it  is  purely 
imaginary. 

Let  us  now,  therefore,  try  to  define  what  we  mean 
by  "soul,"  though  in  our  necessary  ignorance  the  task 
is  not  easy.  The  term  is  indeed  so  ambiguous  that 
many  may  think  it  is  better  avoided  altogether;  but 
the  more  precise  term  "mind"  is  too  narrow  and  exclu- 
sive for  our  present  purpose. 

The  following  definition  may  sufficiently  represent 
my  present  meaning:  The  soul  is  that  controlling 
and  guiding  principle  which  is  responsible  for  our  per- 
sonal expression  and  for  the  construction  of  the  body, 
under  the  restrictions  of  physical  condition  and  an- 
cestry. In  its  higher  development  it  includes  also 
feeling  and  intelligence  and  will,  and  is  the  store- 
house of  mental  experience.  The  body  is  its  instru- 
ment or  organ,  enabling  it  to  receive  and  to  convey 
physical  impressions,  and  to  affect  and  be  affected  by 
matter  and  energy. 

When  the  body  is  destroyed,  therefore,  the  soul  dis- 
appears from  physical  ken ;  when  the  body  is  impaired, 
its  function  is  interfered  with,  and  the  soul's  physical 
reaction  becomes  feeble  and  unsatisfactory.  Thus 
has  arisen  the  popular  misconception  that  the  soul  of 
a  slain  person  or  of  a  cripple  or  paralytic  has  been  des- 
troyed or  damaged;  whereas  only  its  instrument  of 
manifestation  need  have  been  affected.  The  kind  of 
evils  which  really  assault  and  hurt  the  soul  belong  to 
a  different  category. 

It  mav  be  said  that,  in  so  far  as  soul  is  responsible 


THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT    153 

for  bodily  shape,  soul  seems  identical  with  the  princi- 
ple of  life,  and  that  all  living  things  must  possess 
some  rudiment  of  soul. 

Well,  for  myself,  I  do  not  see  how  to  draw  a  hard- 
and-fast  distinction  between  one  form  of  life  and 
another.  All  are  animated  by  something  which  does 
not  belong  to  the  realm  of  physics  and  chemistry,  but 
lies  outside  their  province,  though  it  interacts  with  the 
material  entities  of  their  realm.  Life  is  not  matter, 
nor  is  it  energy,  it  is  a  guiding  and  directing  prin- 
ciple ;  and  when  considered  as  incorporated  in  a  certain 
organism,  it,  and  all  that  appertains  to  it,  may  well 
be  called  the  soul  or  constructive  and  controlling 
element  in  that  organism. 

The  soul  in  this  sense  is  related  to  the  organism  in 
somewhat  the  same  way  as  the  "Logos"  is  related  to 
the  universe ;  it  is  that  without  which  it  does  not  exist, 
that  which  vivifies  and  constructs,  or  composes  and  in- 
forms, the  whole. 

Moreover,  in  the  higher  organisms  the  soul  con- 
spicuously has  lofty  potentialities ;  it  not  only  includes 
what  is  connoted  by  the  term  "mind,"  but  it  begins  to 
acquire  some  of  the  character  of  "spirit";  by  which 
means  it  becomes  related  to  the  Divine  Being.  Soul 
appears  to  be  the  link  between  "spirit"  and  "matter"; 
and,  according  to  its  grade,  it  may  be  chiefly  associ- 
ated with  one  or  with  the  other  of  these  two  great  as- 
pects of  the  universe. 

Now  let  us  consider  what  is  meant  by  Immortality. 
Is  there  anything  that  is  not  subject  to  death  and  an- 


154  THE    IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

nihilation  ?  Can  we  predicate  immortality  about  any- 
thing? Everything  is  subject  to  change,  but  are  all 
things  subject  to  death?  Without  change  there  could 
be  no  activity,  and  the  universe  would  be  stagnant; 
but  without  death  it  is  not  so  clear  that  its  progress 
would  be  obstructed;  unless  death  be  only  a  sort  of 
change. 

But  is  it  not  a  sort  of  change?  Consider  some  ex- 
amples: When  a  piece  of  coal  is  burnt  and  brought 
to  an  apparent  end,  the  particles  of  long-fossilised 
wood  are  not  destroyed;  they  enter  into  the  atmos- 
phere as  gaseous  constituents,  and  the  long-locked- 
up  solar  energy  is  released  from  its  potential  form 
and  appears  once  more  as  light  and  heat.  The  burn- 
ing of  the  coal  is  a  kind  of  resurrection;  and  yet  it  is 
a  kind  of  death  too,  and  to  the  superficial  eye  nothing 
is  left  but  ashes. 

Take  next  the  destruction  of  a  picture  or  a  statue, 
let  it  be  torn  to  pieces  or  mashed  to  powder:  there  is 
nothing  to  suggest  resurrection  about  that,  and  the 
beautiful  form  embodied  in  the  material  has  disap- 
peared. 

Such  a  dissolution  is  a  more  serious  matter,  and 
may  be  the  result  of  a  really  malicious  act.  It  is  per- 
haps the  nearest  approach  to  genuine  destruction  that 
is  possible  to  man,  and  in  some  cases  represents  the 
material  concomitant  of  a  hideous  crime.  True,  noth- 
ing material  is  destroyed,  the  particles  weigh  just  as 
much  as  before ;  yet  the  expression  is  gone,  the  beauty 
is  defaced,  an  idea  perhaps  is  lost. 

But,  after   all,  the   idea  was   never   really   in   the 


THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT     155 

marble  or  in  the  pigments;  it  was  embodied  or  incar- 
nate or  displayed  by  them,  in  a  sense,  but  it  was  not 
really  there.  It  was  in  the  mind  of  the  artist  who 
constructed  the  work,  and  it  entered  the  mind  of  the 
spectators  who  beheld  it — at  least  of  those  who  had 
the  requisite  perceptive  faculty;  but  it  was  never  in 
the  stone  at  all.  The  inert  material,  from  the  impress 
of  mind  it  had  received,  was  able  to  call  out  and  liber- 
ate in  a  kindred  mind  some  of  the  original  feelings  and 
thoughts  which  had  gone  to  fashion  it.  Without  a 
perceptive  faculty,  without  a  sympathetic  mind,  the 
material  was  powerless.  Set  up  in,  or  sent  to,  a 
world  inhabited  only  by  lower  animals,  it  wTould  con- 
vey no  message  whatever,  it  would  be  wholly  mean- 
ingless; just  as  a  piece  of  manuscript  would  be,  in 
such  a  world,  though  it  contained  the  divinest  poem 
ever  written. 

Nevertheless,  by  the  supposed  act  of  vandalism  a 
certain  incarnation  of  beauty  has  been  lost  to  the 
world.  Though  even  so  it  is  not  destroyed  out  of  the 
universe :  it  remains  the  possession  of  the  artist  and  of 
those  privileged  to  feel  along  with  him. 

Consider  next  the  destruction  of  a  tree  or  of  an  ani- 
mal. Here  again  the  particles  remain  as  many  as  be- 
fore, it  is  only  their  arrangement  that  is  altered;  the 
matter  is  conserved  but  has  lost  its  shape ;  the  energy 
is  constant  in  quantity  but  has  changed  its  form. 
What  has  disappeared?  The  thing  that  has  disap- 
peared is  the  life — the  life  which  appeared  to  be  in 
the  tree  or  the  animal,  the  life  which  had  composed  or 
constructed  it  by  aid  of  sunshine  and  atmosphere,  and 


156  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

was  manifested  by  it.  Its  incarnate  form  has  now 
gone — no  more  will  that  life  be  displayed  amidst  its 
old  surroundings,  it  has  disappeared  from  our  ken; 
apparently  it  has  disappeared  from  the  planet.  Has 
it  gone  out  of  existence  altogether  ? 

If  it  were  really  generated  de  novo,  created  out  of 
nothing,  at  the  birth  of  the  animal  or  of  the  tree,  we 
should  be  entitled  to  assume  that  at  death  it  may  have 
returned  to  the  nonentity  whence  it  came. 

But  why  nonentity?  What  do  we  know  of  nonen- 
tity? Is  it  a  reasonable  or  conceivable  idea?  Things 
when  they  vanish  are  only  hidden.  And  so  con- 
versely: it  is  readily  intelligible  that  some  existence, 
some  bodily  presentation,  can  be  evoked  out  of  a 
hidden  or  imperceptible  or  latent  or  potential  exist- 
ence, and  be  made  actual  and  perceptible  and  what  we 
call  real.  Instances  of  that  sort  are  constantly  oc- 
curring. It  occurs  when  a  composer  produces  a  piece 
of  music,  it  occurs  when  an  artisan  constructs  a  piece 
of  furniture,  it  occurs  when  a  spider  spins  a  web,  and 
when  the  atmosphere  deposits  dew.  But  what  ex- 
ample can  we  think  of  wThere  existence  is  created  out 
of  nonentity,  where  nothing  turns  into  something? 
We  can  think  of  plenty  of  examples  of  change,  of  or- 
ganisation, of  something  apparently  complex  and 
highly  developed  arising  out  of  a  germ  apparently 
simple;  but  there  must  always  be  at  least  a  seed,  or 
nothing  will  arise;  nothing  can  come  out  of  nothing: 
something  must  always  have  its  origin  in  something. 

A  radium  atom  is  an  element  possessing  in  itself 
the  seeds  of  its  own  destruction.     Every  now  and  then 


THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT    157 

it  explodes  and  fires  off  a  portion  of  itself.  This  can 
occur  several  times  in  succession,  and  finally  it  seems 
to  become  inert  and  to  cease  to  be  radium  or  anything 
like  it;  it  is  thought  by  some  to  have  become  lead, 
while  the  particles  thrown  off  have  become  helium,  or 
occasionally  neon,  or  sometimes  argon.  Let  us  sup- 
pose that.  We  cannot  stop  there,  we  are  bound  to  go 
on  to  ask  what  was  the  origin  of  the  radium  itself. 
If  it  explodes  itself  to  pieces  in  the  course  of  a  few 
thousand  years,  why  does  any  radium  still  exist? 
How  is  it  being  born?  Does  it  spring  into  existence 
out  of  nothing,  or  has  it  some  parent?  And  if  it  has 
a  parent,  what  was  the  origin  of  that  parent  ? 

Never  in  physical  science  do  we  surmise  for  a 
moment  that  something  suddenly  springs  into  being 
from  previous  non-existence.  All  that  we  perceive 
can  be  accounted  for  by  changes  of  aggregation,  by 
assemblage  and  dispersion.  Of  material  aggregates 
we  can  trace  the  history,  as  we  can  trace  the  history  of 
continents  and  islands,  of  suns  and  planets  and  stars ; 
we  can  say,  or  try  to  say,  whence  they  arose  and  what 
they  will  become ;  but  never  do  we  state  that  they  will 
vanish  into  nothingness,  nor  do  we  ever  conjecture 
that  they  arose  from  nothing. 

It  is  true  that  in  religion  we  seek  to  trace  things 
farther  back  still,  and  ultimately  say  that  everything 
arose  from  God ;  and  there,  perforce,  our  chain  of  ex- 
istence, our  links  of  antecedence  and  sequence  must 
cease.  But  to  allow  such  a  statement  to  act  as  an  in- 
tellectual refuge  can  only  be  a  concession  to  human 
infirmity.     Everything  truly  arose   from   God;   but 


158  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

there  is  nothing'  specially  illuminating  in  such  a  state- 
ment as  that,  for  everything  is  in  God  now ;  and  every- 
thing will  continue  to  be  animated  and  sustained  by 
God  to  all  eternity.  It  is  not  legitimate  explicitly  to 
introduce  the  idea  of  God  to  explain  the  past  alone; 
the  term  applies  equally  to  the  present  and  to  the 
future. 

So  the  assertion  just  made,  though  true  enough,  is 
only  a  mode  of  saying  that  what  was  in  the  beginning, 
is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world  without  end.  This 
is  a  religious  mode  of  expressing  our  conviction  of  the 
uniformity  of  the  Eternal  Character,  but  it  is  not  a 
statement  which  adds  to  our  scientific  information. 
We  may  not  be  able  to  understand  Nature,  we  are 
certainly  unable  to  comprehend  God.  If  we  say  that 
Nature  is  an  aspect  of  the  Divine  Being,  we  must  be 
speaking  truly ;  but  that  only  strengthens  our  present 
argument  as  to  its  durability  and  permanence,  for  we 
shall  certainly  not  thus  be  led  to  attribute  to  anything 
so  qualified  any  power  of  either  jumping  into  or 
jumping  out  of  existence.  To  make  the  statement 
that  Nature  is  an  aspect  of  the  Godhead  is  explicitly 
to  postulate  eternity  for  every  really  existing  thing, 
and  to  sav  that  what  we  call  death  is  not  annihilation 
but  only  change.  Birth  is  change.  Death  is  change. 
A  happy  change,  perhaps ;  a  melancholy  change,  per- 
haps. That  all  depends  upon  circumstances  and 
special  cases,  and  on  the  point  of  view  from  which 
things  are  regarded;  but,  anyhow,  an  inevitable 
change. 

I  want  to  make  the  distinct  assertion  that  no  really 


THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT     159 

existing  thing  perishes,  but  only  changes  its  form. 

Physical  science  teaches  us  this,  clearly  enough,  con- 
cerning matter  and  energy :  the  two  great  entities  with 
which  it  has  to  do.  And  there  is  no  likelihood  of  any 
great  modification  in  this  teaching.  It  may,  perhaps, 
be  induced  in  the  long-run  to  modify  the  form  of 
statement  and  to  assert  conservation  and  real  existence 
of  ether  and  motion  (or,  perhaps  only,  of  ether  in 
motion)  rather  than  of  matter  and  energy.  That  is 
quite  possible,  but  the  apparent  variation  of  statement 
is  only  a  variant  in  form ;  its  essence  and  meaning  are 
the  same,  except  that  it  is  now  more  general  and  would 
allow  even  the  atoms  of  matter  themselves  to  have 
their  day  and  cease  to  be ;  being  resolved,  perhaps,  into 
electricity,  and  that  into  some  hitherto  unimagined 
mode  of  motion  of  the  ether.  But  all  this  is  far  from 
being  accepted  at  present,  and  need  not  here  be  con- 
sidered. 

The  distinction  between  what  is  transitory  and 
what  is  permanent  is  quite  clear.  Evanescence  is  to 
be  stated  concerning  every  kind  of  "system"  and  ag- 
gregation and  grouping.  A  crowd  assembles,  and 
then  it  disperses:  it  is  a  crowd  no  more.  A  cloud 
forms  in  the  sky,  and  soon  once  more  the  sky  is  blue 
again;  the  cloud  has  died.  Dew  forms  on  a  leaf:  a 
little  while,  and  it  has  gone  again — gone  apparently 
into  nothingness,  like  the  cloud.  But  we  know  better, 
both  for  cloud  and  dew.  In  an  imperceptible  form  it 
was  and  soon  into  an  imperceptible  form  it  will  again 
have  passed;  but  meanwhile  there  is  the  dewdrop 
glistening  in  the  sun,  reflecting  all  the  movements  of 


160  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

the  neighbouring  world,  and  contributing  its  little 
share  to  the  beauty  and  the  serviceableness  of  creation. 

Its  perceptible  or  incarnate  existence  is  temporary. 
As  a  drop  it  was  born,  and  as  a  drop  it  dies;  but  as 
aqueous  vapour  it  persists :  an  intrinsically  imperisha- 
ble substance,  with  all  the  properties  persisting  which 
enabled  it  to  condense  into  drop  or  cloud.  Even  it, 
therefore,  has  the  attribute  of  immortality. 

So,  then,  what  about  life?  Can  that  be  a  nonentity 
which  has  built  up  particles  of  carbon  and  hydrogen 
and  oxygen  into  the  form  of  an  oak  or  an  eagle  or  a 
man?  Is  it  something  which  is  really  nothing;  and 
soon  shall  it  be  manifestly  the  nothing  that  an  ig- 
norant and  purblind  creature  may  suppose  it  to  be  ? 

Not  so ;  nor  is  it  so  with  intellect  and  consciousness 
and  will,  nor  with  memory  and  love  and  adoration, 
nor  all  the  manifold  activities  which  at  present 
strangely  interact  with  matter  and  appeal  to  our 
bodily  senses  and  terrestrial  knowledge;  they  are  not 
nothing,  nor  shall  they  ever  vanish  into  nothingness 
or  cease  to  be.  They  did  not  arise  with  us :  they  never 
did  spring  into  being;  they  are  as  eternal  as  the  God- 
head itself,  and  in  the  eternal  Being  they  shall  endure 
for  ever. 

Though  earth  and  man  were  gone, 

And  suns  and  universes  ceased  to  be, 
And  Thou  were  left  alone, 

Every  existence  would  exist  in  Thee." 

So  sang  Emily  Bronte  on  her  deathbed,  in  a  poem 
which  Mr.  Haldane  quotes  in  full,  in  his  GifTord  Lec- 
tures, as  containing  true  philosophy.     And,  surely 


THE  TRANSITORY  AND  THE  PERMANENT     161 

in  this  respect  there  is  a  unity  running  through  the 
universe,  and  a  kinship  between  the  human  and  the 
Divine:  witness  the  eloquent  ejaculation  of  Carlyle: 

'What,  then,  is  man!     What,  then,  is  man! 

"He  endures  but  for  an  hour,  and  is  crushed  before 
the  moth.  Yet  in  the  being  and  in  the  working  of  a 
faithful  man  is  there  already  (as  all  faith  from  the 
beginning,  gives  assurance)  a  something  that  pertains 
not  to  this  wild  death-element  of  Time ;  that  triumphs 
over  Time,  and  is,  and  will  be,  when  Time  shall  be  no 
more." 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY 

Part  II 

"After  death  the  soul  possesses  self-consciousness,  otherwise  it  would 
be  the  subject  of  spiritual  death,  which  has  already  been  disproved. 
With  this  self-consciousness  necessarily  remains  personality  and  the 
consciousness  of  personal  identity." — Kant,  quoted  by  Hewze. 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  on  "The  Transitory  and 
the  Permanent,"  permanence  was  claimed  for  the 
essence,  the  intrinsic  reality,  the  soul  of  anything ;  and 
transitoriness  for  its  bodily  presentment — that  is,  for 
all  such  things  as  special  groupings,  arrangements, 
systems,  which  are  liable  to  break  up  into  their  con- 
stituent elements,  and  cease  to  cohere  into  a  united 
and  organised  aggregate.  The  only  real  destruction 
known  to  us,  in  fact,  is  this  disintegration  or  breaking 
up  of  an  assemblage:  things  themselves  never  spring 
into  or  out  of  existence.  All  we  can  cause  or  can  ob- 
serve is  variety  of  motion — never  creation  or  annihila- 
tion. And  even  the  motion  is  transferred  from  one 
body  to  another,  and  transformed  in  the  process ;  it  is 
not  generated  from  nothing,  nor  can  it  be  destroyed. 
Special  groupings  and  appearances  are  transitory;  it 
is  their  intrinsic  and  constructive  essence  which  is  per- 
manent. 

But  then,  what  about  personality,  individuality,  our 

162 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  163 

own  character  and  self?  Are  these  akin  to  the  tem- 
porary groupings  which  shall  be  dissolved,  or  are  they 
among  the  substantial  realities  that  shall  endure? 

Let  us  see  how  to  define  the  idea  of  personality  or 
personal  and  individual  character : — A  memory,  a  con- 
sciousness, and  a  will,  in  so  far  as  they  form  a  consis- 
tent harmonious  whole,  constitute  a  personality ;  which 
thus  has  relations  with  the  past,  the  present,  and  the 
future.  And  we  shall  argue  that  personality  or  indi- 
viduality itself  dominates  and  transcends  all  temporal 
modes  of  expression,  and  so  is  essentially  eternal 
wherever  it  exists. 

The  life  of  an  insect  or  a  tree  may  in  some  sort — 
must,  one  would  think,  in  some  sort — persist,  but 
surely  not  its  personal  character!  Why  not?  Be- 
cause, presumably,  it  has  none.  We  can  hardly  im- 
agine that  such  a  thing  has  any  individuality  or  per- 
sonality :  it  appears  to  us  to  be  merely  one  of  a  group, 
a  mere  unit  in  a  world  of  being,  without  personality 
of  its  own.  That  is  what  I  assume,  though  I  do  not 
dogmatise;  nor  do  I  consider  it  certain,  for  some  of 
the  higher  animals.  Anyhow  we  may  at  once  admit 
that,  for  all  those  things  which  only  share  in  a  gen- 
eral life,  the  temporarily  separated  portion  of  that 
general  life  will  return,  undifferentiated  and  unident- 
ified, to  its  central  store:  just  as  happens  in  the  bet- 
ter-understood categories  of  matter  and  energy. 

That  is  simple  enough.  But  suppose  that  some  in- 
dividual character,  some  personality,  does  exist. 
Suppose  that  not  only  life,  but  intellect  and  emotion 
and  consciousness  and  will  are  all  associated  with  a 


164  THE    IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

certain  physical  organism;  and  suppose  that  these 

things  have  a  real  and  undeniable  existence — an  ex- 
istence strengthened  and  compacted  by  experience 
and  suffering  and  joy,  till  it  is  no  longer  only  a  func- 
tion of  the  material  aggregate  in  which  for  a  time  it 
is  embodied,  but  belongs  to  a  universe  of  spirit  closely 
related  to  immanent  and  transcendent  Diety;  what 
then?  If  all  that  really  exists,  in  the  highest  sense,  is 
immortal,  we  have  only  to  ask  whether  our  person- 
ality, our  character,  our  self,  is  sufficiently  individual, 
sufficiently  characteristic,  sufficiently  developed, — in 
a  word,  sufficiently  real;  for  if  it  is,  there  can  then  be 
no  doubt  of  its  continuance.  It  may  return,  indeed, 
in  some  sense,  to  the  central  store,  but  not  without 
identity;  its  individual  character  will  be  preserved. 

Conservation  of  Value 

Professor  Hoffding  of  Copenhagen  goes  farther 
than  this.  In  his  book  on  the  Philosophy  of  Religion 
he  teaches  that  what  he  calls  the  axiom  of  "the  con- 
servation of  value"  is  the  fundamental  ingredient  in 
all  religions — the  foundation  without  which  none  of 
them  could  stand.  In  his  view,  as  a  philosopher, 
agreeing  therein  with  Browning  and  other  poets,  no 
real  Value  or  Good  is  ever  lost.  The  whole  progress 
and  course  of  evolution  is  to  increase  and  intensify 
the  Valuable — that  which  "avails"  or  is  serviceable 
for  highest  purposes, — and  it  does  so  by  bringing 
out  that  which  was  potential  or  latent,  so  as  to  make 
it  actual  and  real.  Ileal  it  was,  no  doubt,  all  the  time 
in  some  sense,  as  an  oak  is  implicit  in  an  acorn  or  a 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY,  165 

flower  in  a  bud,  but  in  process  of  time  it  unfolds  and 
adds  to  the  realised  Value  of  the  universe. 

To  carry  out  this  idea  we  might  define  immortality 
thus : 

Immortality  is  the  persistence  of  the  essential  and 
the  real:  it  applies  to  things  which  the  universe  has 
gained — things  which,  once  acquired,  cannot  be  let 
go.  It  is  an  example  of  the  conservation  of  Value. 
The  tendency  of  evolution  is  to  increase  the  actuality 
of  Value,  converting  it  from  a  potential  into  an  avail- 
able form. 

Value  may,  however,  be  something  more  than 
merely  constant  in  quantity,  according  to  Professor 
HofFding.  Experience  of  evolution  suggests  that 
it  must  increase.  Certainly  it  passes  from  latent  to 
more  patent  forms;  and  though  it  sometimes  swings 
back,  yet,  on  the  whole,  progress  seems  upward.  Is 
it  not  legitimate  to  conjecture  that  while  Matter  and 
Energy  neither  increase  nor  decrease,  but  only 
change  in  form;  and  while  life  too  perhaps  is  con- 
stant in  quantity,  though  alternating  into  and  out  of 
incarnation  according  as  material  organisms  are  put 
together  or  worn  out;  yet  that  some  of  the  higher 
attributes  of  existence, — love,  shall  we  say,  joy  per- 
haps, what  may  be  generalised  as  Good  generally,  or 
as  Availability  or  Value, — may  actually  increase: 
their  apparent  alternations  being  really  the  curves  of 
an  upward-tending  spiral?  It  is  an  optimistic  faith, 
but  it  is  the  faith  of  the  poets  and  seers.  Whatever 
evil  days  may  fall  upon  an  individual  or  a  nation,  or 
even  sometimes  on  a  whole  planet,  yet  the  material  is 


\66  THE   IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

subordinate  to  the  spiritual;  and  if  the  spiritual  per- 
sists, it  cannot  be  stationary :  it  must  surely  rise  in  the 
scale  of  existence.  For  evil  is  that  which  retards  or 
frustrates  development,  in  any  part  of  the  universe 
subject  to  its  sway,  and,  accordingly,  its  kingdom 
cannot  stand:  evil  contains  an  essentially  suicidal  ele- 
ment, so  that  on  the  whole  the  realm  of  the  good  must 
tend  to  increase,  the  realm  of  the  bad  to  diminish. 

"No  existing  universe  can  tend  on  the  whole  to- 
wards contraction  and  decay;  because  that  would  fos- 
ter annihilation,  and  so  any  incipient  attempt  would 
not  have  survived;  consequently  an  actually  existing 
and  flowing  universe  must  on  the  whole  cherish  de- 
velopment, expansion,  growth:  and  so  tend  towards 
infinity  rather  than  towards  zero.  The  problem  is 
therefore  only  a  variant  of  the  general  problem  of 
existence.  Given  existence,  of  a  non-stagnant  kind, 
and  ultimate  development  must  be  its  law.  Good  and 
evil  can  be  defined  in  terms  of  development  and  decay 
respectively.  This  may  be  regarded  as  part  of  a 
revelation  of  the  nature  of  God"  (The  Substance  of 
Faith). 

From  this  point  of  view  the  law  of  evolution  is  that 
Good  shall  on  the  whole  increase  in  the  universe  with 
the  process  of  the  suns:  that  immortality  itself  is  a 
special  case  of  a  more  general  Law,  namely,  that  in 
the  whole  universe  nothing  really  finally  perishes  that 
is  worth  keeping,  that  a  thing  once  attained  is  not 
thrown  away. 

The  general  mutability  and  mortality  in  the  world 
need  not  perturb  us.     The  things  we  see  perishing 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY         167 

and  dying  are  not  of  the  same  kind  as  those  which 
we  hope  will  endure.  Death  and  decay,  as  we  know 
them,  are  interesting  physical  processes,  which  may 
be  studied  and  understood;  they  have  seized  the  im- 
agination of  man,  and  govern  his  emotions,  perhaps 
unduly,  but  there  is  nothing  in  them  to  suggest  ulti- 
mate destruction,  or  the  final  triumph  of  ill;  they  are 
necessary  correlatives  to  conception  and  birth  into  a 
material  world;  they  do  not  really  contradict  an  opti- 
mistic view  of  existence. 

So  far  as  we  can  tell,  there  need  be  no  real  waste, 
no  real  loss,  no  annihilation;  but  everything  suffi- 
ciently valuable,  be  it  beauty,  artistic  achievement, 
knowledge,  unselfish  affection,  may  be  thought  of  as 
enduring  henceforth  and  for  ever  if  not  with  an  in- 
dividual and  personal  existence,  yet  as  part  of  the 
eternal  Being  of  God. 

Permanent  Element  in  Man 

And  this  carries  with  it  the  persistence  of  person- 
ality in  all  creatures  who  have  risen  to  the  attainment 
of  God-like  faculties,  such  as  self-determination  and 
other  attributes  which  suggest  kinship  with  Deity 
and  make  their  possessor  a  member  of  the  Divine 
family.  For  whether  or  not  this  incipient  theory  of 
the  conservation  of  value  stand  the  test  of  criticism, 
it  is  undeniable  that,  as  in  the  quotation  from  Carlyle 
at  the  end  of  my  last  article,  seers  do  not  hesitate  to 
attribute  permanence  and  timeless  existence  to  the 
essential  element  in  man  himself.  They  realise  that 
he  is  one  with  the  universe,  that  he  may  come  to  be  in 


His  THE  IMMORTALITY   OF  THE  SOUL 

tune  with  the  infinite,  and  that  his  spasmodic  efforts 
towards  a  state  wherein  the  average  will  rise  to  a  level 
now  attained  by  only  the  few,  are  part  of  the  evolu- 
tionary travailing  of  the  whole  creation.  "All 
omens,"  says  Myers,  "point  towards  the  steady  con- 
tinuance of  just  such  labour  as  has  already  taught  us 
all  we  know.  Perhaps,  indeed,  in  this  complex  of  in- 
terpenetrating spirits  our  own  effort  is  no  individual, 
no  transitory,  thing.  That  which  lies  at  the  root  of 
each  of  us  lies  at  the  root  of  the  Cosmos  too.  Our 
struggle  is  the  struggle  of  the  Universe  itself;  and 
the  very  Godhead  finds  fulfilment  through  our  up- 
ward-striving souls"  (Myers,  Human  Personality,  ii. 
p.  277). 

To  return  to  the  problem  of  individual  existence 
and  to  a  more  prosaic  atmosphere.  What  we  are 
claiming  is  no  less  than  this — that,  whereas  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  present  body  cannot  long  exist  without 
the  soul,  it  is  quite  possible  and  indeed  necessary  for 
the  soul  to  exist  without  the  present  body.  We  base 
this  claim  on  the  soul's  manifest  transcendence,  on  its 
genuine  reality,  and  on  the  general  law  of  the  per- 
sistence of  all  real  existence. 

Recognition  of  the  permanent  element  in  man  and 
of  the  probability  of  his  individual  survival, — that 
is  to  say,  of  the  persistence  of  intelligence  and  mem- 
ory after  the  destruction  of  the  brain — if  such  re- 
cognition is  to  be  of  the  greatest  use  to  mankind, 
should  be  based  on  general  considerations  open  and 
familiar  to  all,  and  be  independent  of  special  study 
with  results  verified  by  only  a  few.     But  if  general 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  169 

arguments  are  insufficient,  and  if  the  reader  has  pa- 
tience with  a  more  specific  line  of  investigation,  then 
I  submit  that  the  question  can  also  be  studied  by  the 
aid  of  observation  and  experiment,  and  that  a  con- 
viction of  persistence  of  personality  can  be  strength- 
ened by  the  record  and  discovery  of  specific  facts. 

Expression  or  Thought  in  Terms  of  Motion 

The  brain  is  definitely  the  link  between  the  psy- 
chical and  the  physical,  which  in  themselves  belong  to 
different  orders  of  being.  In  the  psychical  region 
"thought"  is  the  dominant  reality;  in  the  physical 
"motion."  The  bodily  organism  mysteriously  enables 
one  to  be  translated  in  terms  of  the  other.  Without 
some  connecting  mechanism,  such  as  that  afforded 
by  brain,  nerve,  and  muscle,  the  things  we  call  intelli- 
gence and  will  however  real,  would  be  incapable  of 
moving  the  smallest  particle  of  matter.  Now,  since 
it  is  solely  by  moving  matter  that  we  can  operate  at  all 
in  the  material  world,  or  can  make  ourselves  known 
to  our  fellows, — for  in  the  last  resort  speech  and 
writing  and  every  action  reduce  themselves  to  muscu- 
lar movement, — and  since  death  inhibits  this  power, 
by  breaking  the  link  between  soul  and  body,  death 
naturally  stops  all  manifestation,  interrupts  all  inter- 
course, and  so  has  been  superficially  thought  to  be  the 
annihilation  of  the  soul. 

But  such  a  conclusion  is  quite  unwarranted.  Exist- 
ence need  not  make  itself  conspicuous:  things  are 
always  difficult  to  discover  when  they  make  no  im- 
pression on  the  senses:  the  human  race  is  hardly  yet 


170  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

aware,  for  instance,  of  the  Ether  of  space;  and  there 
may  be  a  multitude  of  other  things  towards  which  it 
is  in  the  same  predicament. 

Superficially,  nothing  is  easier  than  to  claim  that 
just  as  when  the  brain  is  damaged  the  memory  fails, 
so  when  the  brain  is  destroyed  the  memory  ceases. 
The  reasoning  is  so  plausible  and  obvious,  so  within 
reach  of  the  meanest  capacity,  that  those  who  use  it 
against  adversaries  of  any  but  the  lowest  intelligence 
might  surely  assume  that  it  had  already  occurred  to 
them  and  exhibited  its  weak  point.  The  weak  point 
in  the  argument  is  its  tacit  assumption  that  wrhat  is 
non-manifest  is  non-existent;  that  smoothing  out  the 
traces  of  guilt  is  equivalent  to  annihilating  a  crime; 
and  that  by  destroying  the  mechanism  of  interaction 
between  the  spiritual  and  the  material  aspects  of  ex- 
istence you  must  necessarily  be  destroying  one  or 
other  of  those  aspects  themselves. 

The  brain  is  our  present  organ  of  thought. 
Granted;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  brain  controls 
and  dominates  thought,  that  inspiration  is  a  physio- 
logical process,  or  that  every  thinking  creature  in  the 
universe  must  possess  a  brain.  Really  we  know  too 
little  about  the  way  the  brain  thinks,  if  it  can  prop- 
erly be  said  to  think  at  all,  to  be  able  to  make  any  such 
assertion  as  that.  We  terrestrial  animals  are  all  as  it 
were  one  family,  and  our  hereditary  links  with  the 
psychical  universe  consist  of  the  physiological 
mechanism  called  brain  and  nerve.  But  these  most 
interesting  material  structures  are  our  servants,  not 
our  masters :  we  have  to  train  them  to  serve  our  pur- 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  171 

poses;  and  if  one  side  of  the  brain  is  injured,  the 
other  side  may  be  trained  to  act  instead.  Destroy  cer- 
tain parts  of  the  brain  completely,  however,  and  con- 
nexion between  the  psychic  and  the  material  regions 
is  for  us  severed.  True ;  but  cutting  off  or  damaging 
communication  is  not  the  same  as  destroying  or  dam- 
aging the  communicator:  nor  is  smashing  an  organ 
equivalent  to  killing  the  organist.  When  the  At- 
lantic cable  broke,  in  1858,  intimate  communication 
between  England  and  America  was  destroyed;  but 
that  fact  did  not  involve  the  destruction  of  either 
America  or  England.  It  appears  to  be  necessary  to 
emphasise  this  elementary  matter,  because  the  con- 
trary contention  is  supposed  to  cut  straight  at  the  root 
of  every  kind  of  general  argument  for  survival  hith- 
erto adduced. 

But  after  all,  it  may  be  said,  the  above  contention 
proves  nothing  either  way;  granted  that  breach  of 
communication  does  not  mean  destruction  of  terminal 
stations,  it  leaves  the  question  as  to  their  persistence 
an  open  one.  Yes,  it  does;  it  leaves  persistence  to  be 
sustained  by  general  arguments,  such  as  those  of  the 
preceding  chapter,  which  were  directed  to  establish- 
ing the  priority  in  essence  of  the  spiritual  to  the  ma- 
terial, of  idea  to  bodily  presentation;  and  to  be  sup- 
ported by  any  kind  of  additional  and  special  experi- 
ence. 

Argument  from  Telepathy 

First  of  all,  then,  we  must  ask,  are  we  quite  sure 
that  the  breach  of  intercourse  is  as  clear  and  definite 


172  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

and  complete  as  had  been  supposed?  We  have  no 
glimmering  conception  of  the  process  by  which  men- 
tal activity  operates  on  the  matter  of  the  brain ;  so  we 
cannot  be  sure  that  its  influence  is  limited  entirely  to 
the  brain  material  belonging  to  its  own  special  organ- 
ism. It  may  conceivably  be  able  to  affect  other  brains 
too,  either  directly,  or  indirectly  through  an  imme- 
diate influence  on  the  mind  associated  with  them.  In- 
telligent communication  is  normally  carried  on  by 
means  of  conventional  mechanical  movements,  calcu- 
lated to  set  up  special  aerial  or  etherial  tremors; 
which  have  to  be  apprehended  through  sense  organs 
and  brain,  and  interpreted  back  again  into  thought. 
But  we  are  constrained  to  contemplate  the  possibility 
of  a  more  direct  method,  and  to  ask,  is  there  ever  any 
direct  psychical  connection  between  mind  and  mind, 
irrespective  of  intermediate  physical  processes?  It 
is  a  definite  though  difficult  question,  to  be  answered 
by  experience.  And  an  affirmative  answer  would 
suggest,  among  other  things,  that  though  individual- 
ity is  dependent  upon  brain  for  physical  manifesta- 
tion, it  may  not  be  dependent  on  brain  for  psychical 
existence. 

Such  independence  is  difficult  to  prove  directly,  in 
a  way  convincing  to  those  who  approach  the  subject 
without  previous  study,  or  writh  prejudices  against  it; 
because  in  the  proof,  or  to  produce  any  recordable 
impression,  a  bodily  organ — such  as  brain  or  muscle 
— must  be  used.  We  are  not,  and  cannot  be,  com- 
pletely independent  of  the  body  in  this  earth  life :  but 
we  can  bring  forward  facts  which  seem  to  indicate 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  173 

an  activity  specially  and  peculiarly  psychical,  and 
only  slightly  physical.  Of  physical  modes  of  com- 
munication between  mind  and  mind  there  are  many 
varieties:  none  of  which  do  we  really  understand,  be- 
yond a  knowledge  of  their  physical  details,  though 
we  are  well  accustomed  to  them  all ;  but  we  know  of 
one  which  appears  not  to  be  physical,  save  at  its  ter- 
minals, and  which  has  the  appearance  of  being,  in  its 
mode  of  transmission,  exclusively  psychical.  That  is 
to  say,  it  occurs  as  if  one  mind  operated  directly 
either  on  another  brain  or  on  another  mind  across  a 
distance  (if  distance  has  any  meaning  in  such  a  case)  ; 
or  as  if  one  mind  exerted  its  influence  on  another 
through  the  conscious  intervention  of  a  third  mind 
acting  as  messenger ;  or  as  if  mental  intercourse  were 
effected  unconsciously,  through  a  general  nexus  of 
communication — a  universal  world-mind.  All  these 
hypotheses  have  been  suggested  at  different  times  by 
the  phenomenon  of  telepathy;  and  which  of  them  is 
nearest  the  truth  it  is  difficult  to  say.  There  are  some 
who  think  that  all  are  true,  and  that  different  means 
are  employed  at  different  times. 

What  we  can  assert  is  this,  that  the  facts  of  "tele- 
pathy," and  in  a  less  degree  of  what  is  called  "clair- 
voyance," must  be  regarded  as  practically  estab- 
lished, in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  studied  them. 
There  may  be,  indeed  there  is,  still  much  doubt  about 
the  explanation  to  be  attached  to  those  facts;  there  is 
uncertainty  as  to  their  real  meaning,  and  as  to 
whether  the  idea  half -suggested  by  the  word  "tele- 
pathy" is  completely  correct;  but  the  facts  them- 


174  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

selves  are  too  numerous  and  well  authenticated  to  be 
doubted, — even  if  we  except  from  our  survey  the  di- 
rectly experimental  cases  designed  to  test  and  bring 
to  book  this  strange  human  faculty. 

Thus  telepathy  opens  a  new  chapter  in  science,  and 
is  of  an  importance  that  cannot  be  exaggerated. 
Even  alone,  it  tends  mightily  to  strengthen  the  argu- 
ment for  transcendence  of  mind  over  body,  so  that 
we  may  reasonably  expect  the  one  to  be  capable  of 
existing  independently  and  of  surviving  the  other; 
though  by  itself,  or  in  a  discarnate  condition,  it  is 
presumably  unable  to  achieve  anything  directly  on 
the  physical  plane.  But  telepathy  is  not  all.  Telep- 
athy is  indeed  only  the  first  link  in  a  chain:  there 
are  further  links,  further  stages  on  the  road  to 
scientific  proof. 

Arguments  from  Prjeternormal  Psychology 

Have  we  no  facts  to  go  upon,  only  speculation, 
concerning  the  actual  persistence  of  individual  mem- 
ory and  consciousness, — of  much  that  characterises  a 
personality — apart  from  a  bodily  vehicle?  Pacts  we 
have;  but  they  are  not  generally  known,  nor  are  they 
universally  accepted:  they  have  still,  many  of  them, 
to  run  the  gauntlet  of  scientific  criticism  even  among 
the  few  students  who  take  the  trouble  to  study  them. 
Their  theory  has  been  worked  at  pertinaciously,  but 
it  is  still  in  a  rudimentary  stage,  and  by  the  mass  of 
scientific  men  the  whole  subject  is  at  present  ignored, 
because  it  seems  an  elusive  and  disappointing  inquiry, 
and  because  there  are  other  fields  which  are  easier  of 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  175 

cultivation   and   promise   more   immediate    fertility. 
The  chief  of  the  facts  to  which  we  can  appeal  be- 
long to  one  of  three  marked  regions : 

First,  experiences  connected  with  genius,  vision, 
and  dream,  extending  up  to  premonition  and 
clairvoyance, — the  specially  psychological  re- 
gion. 

Second,  the  singular  modification  of  bodily  faculty 
sometimes  experienced, — ranging  from  un- 
usual extention  of  sensory  and  muscular 
powers,  such  as  hyperesthesia  and  what  is  tech- 
nically known  as  automatism,  up  to  various 
grades  of  what  has  been  described  as  material- 
isation;— all  which  great  group  of  asserted  and 
controverted  phenomena  may  be  said  to  belong 
to  the  physiological  region. 

Third,  the  at  first  sight  disconcerting  facts  con- 
nected with  apparent  changes,  dislocations  and 
disintegrations,  of  personality — what  we  may 
call  the  pathological  region. 

Concerning  all  this  mass  of  information,  not  only 
is  the  theory  far  from  distinct,  but  many  of  the  facts 
themselves  are  only  sparsely  known:  they  belong  to 
a  special  branch  of  study,  which,  conducted  under 
many  difficulties,  cannot  be  properly  apprehended 
at  second  hand. 

Suffice  it  therefore  to  say,  that  whereas  it  is  quite 
clear  that  manifestation  of  memory  and  conscious- 
ness, in  a  form  capable  of  being  appreciated  by  or 
demonstrated  to  us,  is  evidently  not  possible  without 


176  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

a  material  organism  or  body  of  some  kind,  yet — in 
the  judgment  of  many  students  of  the  subject — a 
surviving  memory  or  personality,  even  though  dis- 
carnate,  need  not  be  utterly  and  completely  pre- 
vented from  still  occasionally  operating  in  our 
sphere. 

For  as  it  was  possible  for  what,  in  Chapter  VIII., 
we  defined  as  "soul"  to  compose  and  employ  an  organ 
suited  to  itself,  out  of  various  kinds  of  nutriment, 
so  also  it  appears  to  be  possible,  though  not  without 
difficulty  and  extraordinary  trouble,  for  a  discarnate 
entity  or  psychical  unit  occasionally  to  utilise  a  body 
constructed  by  some  other  similar  "soul,"  and  to  make 
an  attempt  at  communication  and  manifestation 
through  that.  It  has  even  been  conjectured  that  by 
special  exertion  of  psychical  power  a  temporary 
organ  of  materialisation  can  be  constructed,  presum- 
ably of  organic  particles,  sufficient  to  enable  some 
interaction  between  spirit  and  matter,  and  even  to 
display  some  personal  characteristics,  through  the 
utilisation  of  a  form  partially  separate  from,  though 
also  closely  connected  with,  and  as  some  think  even 
borrowed  from,  the  bodily  organism  of  the  auxiliary 
person  known  technically  as  the  "medium"  of  com- 
munication, whose  presence  is  certainly  necessary. 
In  favour  of  such  an  occurrence  there  is  much  evi- 
dence, some  of  it  of  a  weak  kind,  some  of  it  quite 
valueless;  but  again  some  of  it  is  strong,  evidenced 
by  weighing,  and  vouched  for  by  experienced  nat- 
uralists and  observers  such  as  Dr.  A.  It.  Wallace  and 
Sir  W.  Crookes,  as  well  as  by  the  eminent  physi- 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  177 

ologist  Professor  Bichet,  and  by  Professors  Schiap- 
arelli,  Lombroso,  and  other  foreign  men  of  science. 

The  idea  here  suggested  is  admittedly  bizarre  and 
at  first  sight  absurd;  nevertheless  something  of  the 
kind  has  the  appearance  of  being  true,  in  spite  of  its 
having  been  discredited  by  much  professional  fraud 
exercised  upon  too  willing  dupes.  The  phenomenon 
on  which  it  is  based  is  at  any  rate  a  puzzling  one,  call- 
ing for  further  investigation:  which  must  ultimately 
pursue  it  into  a  region  quite  apart  from  and  beyond 
the  obvious  possibilities  of  fraud;  that  is  to  say,  must 
not  only  establish  it  as  a  fact,  if  it  be  a  fact,  but 
must  ascertain  the  laws  which  govern  it. 

Argument  from  Automatism 

More  frequently,  however,  a  simpler  method,  akin 
to  telepathy  and  to  what  is  commonly  known  as  in- 
spiration or  "possession,"  is  employed;  whereby  some 
portion  of  the  brain  of  "the  automatist"  appears  to 
be  operated  upon  directly,  so  as  to  produce  intelligible 
statements,  in  speech  or  writing,  often  of  consider- 
able length  and  occasionally  in  unknown  languages; 
— these  messages  being,  at  least  in  the  cases  where 
they  are  not  merely  subjective  and  of  little  interest, 
apparently  irrespective  of  the  ordinary  consciousness, 
and  only  slightly  sophisticated  by  the  normal  mental 
activity,  of  the  person  by  whom  this  organ  is  usually 
wielded,  and  to  whom  it  nominally  "belongs." 

The  body,  in  fact,  or  some  part  of  the  body, 
though  usually  controlled  and  directed  by  the  par- 
ticular   psychical    agent    which   has    composed    and 


178  THE   IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

grown  accustomed  to  it,  can  sometimes  be  found 
capable  of  responding  to  a  foreign  intelligence,  act- 
ing either  telepathically  through  the  mind  or  telerg- 
ically  by  a  more  direct  process  straight  on  the  brain. 
Sometimes  the  controlling  intelligence  belongs  to  a 
living  person,  as  in  cases  of  hypnotism ;  more  usually 
it  is  an  influence  emanating  from  what  we  must  con- 
sider some  portion  of  the  automatist's  own  larger  or 
subliminal  self.  Occasionally  a  person  appears  able 
to  respond  to  thoughts  or  stimuli  embedded,  as  it 
were,  among  psycho-physical  surroundings  in  a  man- 
ner at  present  ill  understood  and  almost  incredible; 
— as  if  strong  emotions  could  be  unconsciously  re- 
corded in  matter,  so  that  the  deposit  shall  thereafter 
affect  a  sufficiently  sensitive  organism,  and  cause  sim- 
ilar emotions  to  reproduce  themselves  in  its  subcon- 
sciousness, in  a  manner  analogous  to  the  customary 
conscious  interpretation  of  photographic  or  phono- 
graphic records,  and  indeed  of  pictures  or  music  and 
artistic  embodiment  generally.  And  lastly,  there  are 
people  who  seem  able  to  respond  to  a  psychical  agency 
apparently  related  to  the  surviving  portion  of  intelli- 
gences now  discarnate,  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest 
that  the  said  intelligences  are  picking  up  the  thread 
of  their  old  thoughts,  and  entering  into  something  like 
their  old  surroundings  and  their  old  feelings — ■ 
though  often  only  in  a  more  or  less  dreamy  and  semi- 
entranced  condition — for  the  purpose  of  conveying 
hallucinatory  or  other  impressions  to  those  who  are 
still  in  the  completely  embodied  state. 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  assume,  without 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY         179 

proof,  that  any  given  automatic  message  really 
emanates  from  the  person  to  whom  it  is  attributed; 
and  such  a  generalisation  applied  to  all  so-called  mes- 
sages would  be  grotesquely  untrue.  But  then  neither 
should  we  be  safe  in  maintaining  that  none  of  them 
have  an  authentic  character,  and  that  they  are  never 
in  any  degree  what  they  purport  to  be.  The  elimina- 
tion of  the  normal  personality  of  the  automatist,  and 
the  proof  of  the  supposed  communicator's  identity, 
are  singularly  difficult;  but  in  a  few  cases  the  evi- 
dence for  identity  is  remarkably  strong.  The  sub- 
stance of  the  message  and  the  kind  of  memory  dis- 
played in  these  cases  belong  not  at  all  to  the  brain  of 
the  automatist,  but  clearly  to  the  intelligence  of  the 
asserted  control :  of  whose  identity  and  special  knowl- 
edge they  are  sometimes  strongly  characteristic.  As 
to  the  elimination  of  normal  personality,  however, 
it  must  be  admitted  that,  in  all  cases,  the  manner  and 
accidents  or  accessories  of  the  message  are  liable  to 
be  modified  by  the  material  instrument  or  organ 
through  which  the  thought  or  idea  is  for  our  in- 
formation reproduced.  The  reproduction  of  a 
thought  in  our  world  appears  to  demand  distinct  ef- 
fort on  the  part  of  a  transcendental  thinker,  and  it 
seems  to  be  almost  a  matter  of  indifference,  or  so  to 
speak  of  accident  not  determined  by  the  thinker, 
whether  it  make  its  appearance  here  in  the  form  of 
speech  or  of  writing,  or  whether  it  take  the  form  of  a 
work  of  art,  or  of  unusual  spiritual  illumination. 
This  is  surely  true  of  orthodox  inspiration,  as  well 
as  of  what  we  are  now  conjecturing  may  perhaps  be 


180  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

an  attempt  at  some  additional  method  of  arousing 
ideas  in  us.  Moreover,  in  both  cases,  lucidity  is  only 
to  be  expected,  and  is  only  obtained,  in  flashes.  The 
best  of  us  only  get  flashes  of  genius  now  and  then, 
and  the  experience  is  seldom  unduly  prolonged. 
Why  should  we  expect  it  to  be  otherwise? 

There  is  another  aspect  of  the  matter  that  may  be 
mentioned  too.  For  most  of  the  difficulty  of  inter- 
communication we  ourselves  must  be  held  responsible. 
Our  normal  immersion  in  mundane  affairs  may  be 
very  sensible  and  practical,  and  is  probably  essential 
to  earthly  progress  until  our  civilisation  is  rather 
more  consolidated  and  developed,  but  it  can  hardly 
facilitate  communion  with  another  order  of  existence. 
Nor  is  it  likely  that  we  should  be  able  to  appreciate 
the  intimate  concerns  of  that  other  order,  even  if  it 
were  feasible  to  convey  a  detailed  account  of  them. 

It  is  true  that  messages  are  often  vague  and  disap- 
pointing even  when  apparently  genuine;  untrue  that 
they  are  invariably  futile  and  useless  and  inappro- 
priate,— such  an  assertion  could  only  be  made  by  peo- 
ple imperfectly  acquainted  with  the  facts.  In  certain 
cases  it  is  quite  clear  that  a  bodily  organism  has  been 
controlled  by  something  other  than  its  usual  and 
normal  intelligence,  and  in  a  few  cases  the  identity 
of  the  control  has  been  almost  crucially  established: 
though  that  is  a  matter  to  be  dealt  with  more  tech- 
nically elsewhere. 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  181 

Subliminal  Faculty 

The  extension  of  faculty  exhibited  during  some 
trance  states  has  suggested  that  a  similar  enlarge- 
ment of  memory  and  consciousness  may  follow  or  ac- 
company our  departure  from  this  life,  and  is  partly 
responsible  for  the  notion  of  the  existence  of  a  sub- 
liminal or  normally  unconscious  portion  of  our  total 
personality.  On  this  subject  I  can  conveniently  refer 
to  the  summary  contained  in  Myers'  chapters  on 
"Disintegrations  of  Personality"  and  on  "Genius," 
in  vol.  i.  of  his  Human  Personality.  This  doctrine — 
the  theory  of  a  larger  and  permanent  personality  of 
which  the  conscious  self  is  only  a  fraction  in  process 
of  individualisation,  the  fraction  being  greater  or  less 
according  to  the  magnitude  of  the  individual, — this 
doctrine,  as  a  working  hypothesis,  illuminates  many 
obscure  facts,  and  serves  as  a  thread  through  an  other- 
wise bewildering  labyrinth.  It  removes  a  number  of 
elementary  stumbling-blocks  which  otherwise  ob- 
struct an  attempt  to  realise  vividly  the  incipient 
stages  of  personal  existence;  it  accounts  for  the  ex- 
traordinary rapidity  with  which  the  development  of 
an  individual  proceeds;  and  it  eases  the  theory  of  or- 
dinary birth  and  death.  It  achieves  all  this  as  well  as 
the  office  for  which  it  was  originally  designed, 
namely,  the  elucidation  of  unusual  experiences,  such 
as  those  associated  with  dreams,  premonitions,  and 
prodigies  of  genius.  Many  great  and  universally 
recognised  thinkers,  Plato,  Virgil,   Kant,   I  think,1 

i  In  justification  of  the  inclusion  of  this  name,  the  following  may 


182  THE   IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

and  Wordsworth,  all  had  room  for  an  idea  more  or 
less  of  this  kind ;  which  indeed,  in  some  form,  is  almost 
necessitated  by  a  consideration  of  our  habitually  un- 
conscious performance  of  organic  function.  What- 
ever it  is  that  controls  our  physiological  mechanism, 
it  is  certainly  not  our  own  consciousness;  nor  is  it 
any  part  of  our  recognised  and  obvious  personality. 

"  We  feel  that  we  are  greater  than  we  know." 

Our  present  state  may  be  likened  to  that  of  the 
hulls  of  ships  submerged  in  a  dim  ocean  among  many 
strange  beasts,  propelled  in  a  blind  manner  through 
sj}ace;  proud  perhaps  of  accumulating  many  barna- 
cles as  decoration;  only  recognising  our  destination 
by  bumping  against  the  dock  wall.  With  no  cogni- 
sance of  the  deck  and  the  cabins,  the  spars  and  the 
sails;  no  thought  of  the  sextant  and  the  compass  and 
the  captain ;  no  perception  of  the  lookout  on  the  mast, 
of  the  distant  horizon;  no  vision  of  objects  far  ahead, 
dangers  to  be  avoided,  destinations  to  be  reached, 
other  ships  to  be  spoken  with  by  other  means  than 
bodily  contact; — a  region  of  sunshine  and  cloud,  of 
space,  of  perception,  and  of  intelligence,  utterly  in- 
accessible to  the  parts  below  the  water-line. 

To  suppose  that  we  know  and  understand  the  uni- 
verse, to  suppose  that  we  have  grasped  its  main  out- 
lines, that  we  realise  pretty  completely  not  only  what 
is  in  it,  but  the  still  more  stupendous  problem  of  what 

suffice  as  an  example:  "For  if  we  should  see  things  and  ourselves  as 
they  are,  we  would  see  ourselves  in  a  world  of  spiritual  natures  with 
which  our  entire  real  relation  neither  hegan  at  birth  nor  ended  with  the 
body's  death." — Kant,  quoted  by  Heinze. 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  183 

is  not  and  cannot  be  in  it — as  do  some  of  our  gnostic 
(self-styled  "agnostic")  friends — is  a  presumptuous 
exercise  of  limited  intelligence,  only  possible  to  a  cer- 
tain very  practical  and  useful  order  of  brain,  which 
has  good  solid  work  of  a  commonplace  kind  to  do  in 
the  world,  and  has  been  restricted  in  its  outlook,  let 
us  say  by  Providence,  in  order  that  it  may  do  that 
one  thing  and  do  it  well. 

And  just  as  we  fail  to  grasp  the  universe  so  do  we 
fail  as  yet  to  know  ourselves:  the  part  of  which  we 
have  become  aware,  the  part  which  manifestly  gov- 
erns our  planetary  life,  is  probably  far  from  being 
the  whole.1  The  assumption  that  the  true  self  is  com- 
plex, and  that  a  larger  range  of  memory  may  ulti- 
mately be  attained,  is  justified  by  the  researches  of 
alienists,  and  mental  physicians  generally,  into  those 
curious  pathological  cases  of  "strata  of  memory"  or 
dislocations  of  personality,  on  which  many  medical 
books  and  papers  are  available  for  the  student.  In 
cases  of  multiple  personality,  the  patients,  when  in 
the  ordinary  or  normally  conscious  state,  are  usually 
ignorant  of  what  has  happened  in  the  intervening  pe- 

i  Such  an  admission  is  quite  consistent  with  recognition  of  the  mo- 
mentous character  of  this  present  stage  of  existence,  not  only  while  it 
lasts,  but  as  influencing,  and  contributing  in  every  sense  to,  the  future; 
the  doctrine  of  the  subliminal  self  throws  no  sort  of  contempt  or  dis- 
couragement on  the  things  which  really  ought  to  interest  us  here  and  now. 
There  is  "danger  of  losing  sight  of  the  ideal  in  our  immediate  life,  and 
thinking  that  it  is  to  be  found  only  in  the  past  or  in  the  future,"  says 
Professor  Caird;  whereas  our  little  struggle  is  part  of  the  great  conflict 
of  good  and  evil  in  the  universe,  and  we  should  be  encouraged  were  we  to 
"realise  that  our  life  is  not  an  aimless  or  meaningless  vicissitude  of 
events,  but  an  essential  step  in  the  great  process." 


184  THE   IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

riods  when  they  were  not  in  that  state,  and  are  not 
aware  of  what  they  have  done  when  in  one  of  the 
deeper  states;  hut  as  soon  as  the  personality  has  en- 
tered an  ultra-normal  condition,  it  is  often  found  to 
he  aware,  not  only  of  its  previous  actions  when  in 
that  condition,  but  also  of  what  was  felt  and  known 
while  at  the  ordinary  grade  of  intelligence. 

The  analogy  pointed  to  is  that  whereas  we  living 
men  and  women,  while  associated  with  this  mortal  or- 
ganism, are  ignorant  of  whatever  experience  our 
larger  selves  may  have  gone  through  in  the  past — 
yet  when  we  wake  out  of  this  present  materialised 
condition,  and  enter  the  region  of  larger  conscious- 
ness, we  may  gradually  realise  in  what  a  curious 
though  legitimate  condition  of  ignorance  we  now  are ; 
and  may  become  aware  of  our  fuller  possession,  with 
all  that  has  happened  here  and  now  fully  remem- 
bered and  incorporated  as  an  additional  experience 
into  the  wide  range  of  knowledge  which  that  larger 
entity  must  have  accumulated  since  its  intelligence 
and  memory  began.  The  transition  called  death  may 
thus  be  an  awaking  rather  than  a  sleeping ;  it  may  be 
that  we,  still  involved  in  mortal  coil,  are  in  the  more 
dream-like  and  unreal  condition : 

"Peace,  peace!  he  is  not  dead,  he  doth  not  sleep — 
He  hath  awakened  from  the  dream  of  life — 
'Tis  we  who,  lost  in  stormy  visions,  keep 
With  phantoms  an  unprofitable  strife." 

(Shelley's  "Adonais.") 

The  ideas  thus  briefly  indicated  have  been  sug- 
gested by  a  mass  of  unfamiliar   experience,   upon 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY         185 

which  it  is  legitimate  to  speculate,  though  quite  ille- 
gitimate to  dogmatise;  but  in  case  they  seem  too 
fanciful  to  serve  as  any  part  of  a  basis  for  human 
immortality,  it  may  be  well  to  show  how  clearly  the 
possibility  of  a  larger  and  fuller  existence  than  the 
present  is  indicated  by  facts  with  which  we  are  all 
familiar. 

Argument  from  Genius 

It  must  be  apparent  how  few  of  our  faculties  can 
really  be  accounted  for  by  the  need  of  sustenance 
and  by  the  struggle  for  existence;  and  how  those 
necessary  faculties  and  powers  naturally  assume  an 
overweening  importance  here  and  now,  from  the  fact 
that  they  are  so  specially  fitted  to  our  present  sur- 
roundings. So  that  the  less  immediately  practical 
mental  and  spiritual  characteristics  can  be  spoken  of 
by  anthropologists  as  if  they  were  of  the  nature  of 
sports  and  by-products,  not  in  the  direct  line  of  evo- 
lutional advance. 

But,  says  Myers: 

"The  faculties  which  befit  the  material  environment 
have  absolutely  no  primacy,  unless  it  be  of  the  merely 
chronological  kind,  over  those  faculties  which  science 
has  often  called  by-products ,  because  they  have  no 
manifest  tendency  to  aid  their  possessor  in  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  in  a  material  world.  The  higher 
gifts  of  genius — poetry,  the  plastic  arts,  music,  phil- 
osophy, pure  mathematics — all  of  these  are  precisely 
as  much  in  the  central  stream  of  evolution — are  per- 
ceptions of  new  truth  and  powers  of  new  action  just 


186  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

as  decisively  predestined  for  the  race  of  man — as  the 
aboriginal  Australian's  faculty  for  throwing  a  boom- 
erang or  for  swarming  up  a  tree  for  grubs.  There 
is,  then,  about  those  loftier  interests  nothing  exotic, 
nothing  accidental;  they  are  an  intrinsic  part  of  that 
ever-evolving  response  to  our  surroundings  which 
forms  not  only  the  planetary  but  the  cosmic  history 
of  all  our  race." 

We  can  regard  these  higher  faculties,  these  inspir- 
ations of  genius  and  the  like,  not  only  as  contributing 
to  our  best  moments  now,  but  as  forecasts  or  indica- 
tions of  something  still  more  specially  appropriate  to 
our  surroundings  in  the  future — anticipations  of 
worlds  not  realised — rudiments  of  what  will  develop 
more  fully  hereafter;  so  that  their  apparent  incon- 
gruousness  and  occasional  inconvenience,  under  pres- 
ent mundane  conditions,  are  quite  natural.  Ulti- 
mately they  may  be  found  to  be  nearer  to  the  heart 
of  things  than  the  attributes  which  are  successful  in 
the  stage  to  which  this  world  has  at  present  attained; 
though  they  can  only  exhibit  their  full  meaning  and 
attain  their  full  development  in  a  higher  condition 
of  existence, — whether  that  be  found  by  the  race  on 
this  planet  or  by  the  individual  in  a  life  to  come. 

"An  often-quoted  analogy  has  here  a  closer  appli- 
cation than  is  commonly  apprehended.  The  grub 
comes  from  the  egg  laid  by  a  winged  insect,  and  a 
winged  insect  it  must  itself  become;  but  meantime  it 
must  for  the  sake  of  its  own  nurture  and  preserva- 
tion   acquire    certain    larval    characters — characters 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  187 

sometimes  so  complex  that  the  observer  may  be  ex- 
cused for  mistaking  that  larva  for  a  perfect  insect 
destined  for  no  further  change  save  death.  Such 
larval  characters  acquired  to  meet  the  risks  of  a  tem- 
porary environment,  I  seem  to  see  in  man's  earthly 
strength  and  glory.  In  these  I  see  the  human  ana- 
logues of  the  poisonous  tufts  which  choke  the  captor 
— the  attitudes  of  mimicry  which  suggest  an  absent 
sting — the  'death's  head'  coloration  which  disconcerts 
a  stronger  foe." 

For  the  triumphs  of  natural  selection,  then,  we 
must  look  not  to  the  spiritual  faculties  and  endow- 
ments of  the  race,  but  to  the  businesslike  masterful- 
ness which  makes  one  man  a  conqueror  and  another 
a  millionaire.  These  we  can  regard  as  larval  charac- 
ters, of  special  service  in  the  present  stage  of  exist- 
ence, but  destined  to  be  discarded,  or  modified  almost 
out  of  recognition,  in  proportion  as  a  higher  state  is 
attained.  This  I  take  to  be  the  deep  meaning  of  the 
Gospel  sentence  beginning  "How  hardly!" 
But  to  continue  Myers'  biological  parable: 
"Meantime  the  adaptation  to  aerial  life  is  going 
on;  something  of  the  imago  or  perfect  insect  is  per- 
formed within  the  grub;  and  in  some  species,  even 
before  they  sink  into  their  transitional  slumber  the 
rudiments  of  wings  still  helpless  protrude  awkwardly 
beneath  the  larval  skin.  Those  who  call  Shelley,  for 
instance,  'a  beautiful  but  ineffectual  angel  beating 
his  wings  in  the  void,'  may  adopt,  if  they  choose,  this 
homelier  but  exacter  parallel.    Shelley's  special  gifts 


188  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

were  no  more  by-products  of  Shelley's  digestive  sys- 
tem than  the  wings  are  by-products  of  the  grub" 
(Myers,  i.  p.  97). 

The  meaning,  you  see,  is  that  they  are  in  the  direct 
line  of  evolution,  when  the  whole  of  existence  is  taken 
into  account;  and  that  similarly  in  the  evolution  of 
genius  we  are  watching  the  emergence  of  unguessed 
potentialities  from  the  primal  germ, — the  first  reveal- 
ings 

"Of  faculties,  displayed  in  vain,  but  born 
To  prosper  in  some  better  sphere." 

(Browning's  "Paracelsus.") 

Moreover,  what  is  true  for  the  individual  must  be 
true  also  in  some  measure  for  the  race.  Embryology 
teaches  us  that  each  organism  rapidly  recapitulates 
or  epitomises,  amid  how  different  conditions,  its  an- 
cestral past  history.  It  is  legitimate  to  extend  the 
same  idea  to  the  future,  and  to  regard  the  progress 
of  the  individual  and  the  progress  of  the  race  as  in 
some  degree  concurrent;  since  their  potentialities  are 
similar,  though  their  surroundings  will  be  different. 
This  argument,  so  far  as  I  know,  is  novel,  but  not 
undeserving  of  attention. 

Argument  from  Mental  Pathology 

And  as  to  the  disintegrations  of  personality, — the 
painful  defects  of  will,  the  lapses  of  memory,  the 
losses  of  sensation — such  as  are  manifested  by  the 
hysteric  patients  of  the  Salpetriere  and  other  hos- 
pitals,— the  lesson  to  be  learnt  from  those  patholog- 
ical cases  is  not  one  of  despair  at  the  weaknesses  and 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  189 

ghastly  imperfections  possible  to  humanity;  rather, 
on  this  view,  it  is  one  of  hope  and  inspiration.  For 
they  point  to  the  possibility  that  our  present  condi- 
tion may  be  as  much  below  an  attainable  standard  as 
the  condition  of  these  poor  patients  is  below  what  by 
a  natural  convention  we  have  agreed  to  regard  as  the 
"normal"  state.  We  might  indeed  feel  bound  to  re- 
gard it  not  only  as  normal  but  as  ultimate,  were  it  not 
that  some  specimens  of  our  race  have  already  tran- 
scended it,  have  shown  that  genius,  almost  super- 
human, is  possible  to  man,  and  have  thereby  fore- 
shadowed the  existence  of  a  larger  personality  for 
us  all.  Nay,  they  have  done  more, — for  in  thus  real- 
ising in  the  flesh  some  of  the  less  accessible  of  human 
attributes,  they  have  become  the  first-fruits  of  a 
brotherhood  higher  than  the  human;  we  may  hail 
them  as  the  forerunners  of  a  nobler  race.  Such  a 
race,  I  venture  to  predict,  will  yet  come  into  exist- 
ence, not  only  in  the  vista  of  what  may  seem  to  some 
of  us  an  unattractive  and  unsubstantial  future,  but 
here  in  the  sunshine  on  this  planet  Earth. 

"Prognostics  told 
Man's  near  approach;  so  in  man's   self  arise 
August  anticipations,  symbols,  types 
Of  a  dim  splendour  ever  on  before." 

For  as  the  hysteric  stands  in  comparison  with  us 
ordinary  men,  so  perhaps  do  we  ordinary  men  stand 
in  comparison  with  a  not  impossible  ideal  of  faculty 
and  of  self-control.  "Might  not,"  says  Myers,  "all 
the  historic  tale  be  told,  mutato  nomine,  of  the  whole 
race  of  mortal  men?    What  assurance  have  we  that 


190  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

from  some  point  of  higher  vision  we  men  are  not  as 
these  shrunken  and  shadowed  souls?  Suppose  that 
we  had  all  been  a  community  of  hysterics,  all  of  us 
together  subject  to  these  shifting  losses  of  sensation, 
these  inexplicable  gaps  of  memory,  these  sudden  de- 
fects and  paralyses  of  movement  and  of  will.  As- 
suredly we  should  soon  have  argued  that  our  actual 
powers  were  all  with  which  the  human  organism  was 
or  could  be  endowed.  .  .  .  Nay,  if  we  had  been  a 
populace  of  hysterics  we  should  have  acquiesced  in 
our  hysteria.  We  should  have  pushed  aside  as  a  fan- 
tastic enthusiast  the  f ellow-sufFerer  who  strove  to  tell 
us  that  this  was  not  all  that  we  were  meant  to  be.  As 
we  now  stand, — each  one  of  us  totus,  teres,  atque 
rotun&us  in  his  own  esteem, — we  see  at  least  how 
cowardly  would  have  been  that  contentment,  how  vast 
the  ignored  possibilities,  the  forgotten  hope.  Yet 
who  assures  us  that  even  here  and  now  we  have  de- 
veloped into  the  full  height  and  scope  of  our  being? 
A  moment  comes  when  the  most  beclouded  of  these 
hysterics  has  a  glimpse  of  the  truth.  A  moment 
comes  when,  after  a  profound  slumber,  she  wakes 
into  an  instant  clair — a  flash  of  full  perception,  which 
shows  her  as  solid,  vivid  realities  all  that  she  has  in 
her  bewilderment  been  apprehending  phantasmally  as 
a  dream.  ...  Is  there  for  us  also  any  possibility  of 
a  like  resurrection  into  reality  and  day  ?  Is  there  for 
us  any  sleep  so  deep  that  waking  from  it  after  the 
likeness  of  perfect  man  we  shall  be  satisfied;  and 
shall  see  face  to  face ;  and  shall  know  even  as  also  we 
are  known?" 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY         191 

Whatever  may  be  the  answer  to  this  question,  it  is 
undoubtedly  true  now — and  that  it  is  true  is  largely 
owing  to  him  and  his  co-workers — that  "these  dis- 
turbances of  personality  are  no  longer  for  us — as 
they  were  even  for  the  last  generation — mere  empty 
marvels,  which  the  old-fashioned  sceptic  would  often 
plume  himself  on  refusing  to  believe.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  are  beginning  to  be  recognised  as  psycho- 
pathological  problems  of  the  utmost  interest; — no 
one  of  them  exactly  like  another,  and  no  one  of  them 
without  some  possible  apercu  into  the  intimate  struc- 
ture of  man." 

Religious  Objections 

Whatever  objections  to  the  above  argument  may 
be  adduced  from  the  side  of  science — and  there  are 
sure  to  be  many,  for  free  criticism  is  its  natural  at- 
mosphere,— there  is  one  from  the  side  of  religion — 
more  often  felt  than  expressed  perhaps — which  I 
must  in  conclusion  briefly  notice: 

Objection  is  sometimes  taken  against  any  attempt 
being  made  gradually  to  arrive  at  what  in  process  of 
time  may  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  scientific  proof 
of  such  a  thing  as  immortality;  on  the  ground  that 
it  is  an  encroachment  on  the  region  of  faith,  a  pre- 
sumptuous interference  with  what  ought  to  be 
treated  as  the  territory  of  religion  alone. 

To  meet  these  objectors  on  their  own  ground,  they 
might  be  reminded  of  such  texts  as  2  Pet.  i.  5,  Prov. 
xxv.  2,  as  well  as  of  the  still  more  authoritative  en- 
couragement to  investigation  contained  in  Luke  xi. 


192  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

9  and  in  1  John  i.  5 ;  the  latter,  or  indeed  both,  being 
an  expression  of  the  basal  postulate  of  the  man  of 
science,  namely,  the  ultimate  intelligibility  of  the  Uni- 
verse. 

But,  after  all,  an  objection  of  this  kind  can  only  be 
felt,  first  by  those  who  think  that  knowledge  is  the 
enemy  of  belief,  instead  of  its  strengthener  and  sup- 
porter, and  second  by  those  who  unconsciously  fear 
that  the  domain  of  religion  is  finite,  and  who  there- 
fore resent  encroachments  as  diminishing  its  already 
too  restricted  area.  It  cannot  be  felt  by  people  who 
realise  that  the  dominion  of  religion  is  unlimited,  and 
that  there  is  infinite  scope  for  faith,  however  far 
knowledge — real  and  accurate  scientific  knowledge — 
extends  its  boundaries.  The  enlargement  of  those 
boundaries  is  all  gain;  for  thus  the  one  area  is  in- 
creased while  the  other  is  not  diminished.  Infinity 
cannot  be  diminished  by  subtraction.  No  such  ob- 
jection to  the  spread  of  knowledge  was  felt  by  that 
inspired  writer  who  hoped  for  the  time  when  "the 
earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as 
the  waters  cover  the  sea." 

Whatever  science  can  establish,  that  it  has  a  right 
to  establish :  more  than  a  right,  it  has  a  duty.  What- 
ever science  can  examine  into,  that  it  has  a  right  to 
examine  into.  If  there  be  things  which  we  are  not 
intended  to  know,  be  assured  that  we  shall  never 
know  them:  we  shall  not  know  enough  about  them 
even  to  ask  a  question  or  start  an  inquiry.  The  in- 
tention of  the  universe  is  not  going  to  be  frustrated 
by  the  insignificant  efforts  of  its  own  creatures.    If 


THE  PERMANENCE  OF  PERSONALITY  193 

we  refrain  from  examination  and  inquiry,  for  no  bet- 
ter reason  than  the  fanciful  notion  that  perhaps  we 
may  be  trespassing  on  forbidden  ground,  such  hesi- 
tation argues  a  pitiful  lack  of  faith  in  the  goodwill 
and  friendliness  and  power  of  the  forces  that  make 
for  righteousness. 

Let  us  study  all  the  facts  that  are  open  to  us,  with 
a  trusting  and  an  open  mind;  with  care  and  candour 
testing  all  our  provisional  hypotheses,  and  with  slow 
and  cautious  verification  making  good  our  steps  as 
we  proceed.  Thus  may  we  hope  to  reach  out  farther 
and  ever  farther  into  the  unknown;  sure  that  as  we 
grope  in  the  darkness  we  shall  encounter  no  clammy 
horror,  but  shall  receive  an  assistance  and  sympathy 
which  it  is  legitimate  to  symbolise  as  a  clasp  from  the 
hand  of  Christ  himself. 


SECTION     IV— SCIENCE     AND      CHRIS- 
TIANITY 


195 


CHAPTER  X 

SUGGESTIONS  TOWARDS  THE  RE-INTERPRETATION 
OF  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 


NOW  that  religion  is  becoming  so  much  more  real, 
is  being  born  again  in  the  spirit  of  modern  criti- 
cism and  scientific  knowledge,  may  it  not  be  well  to 
ask  whether  the  formal  statement  of  some  of  the  doc- 
trines which  we  have  inherited  from  mediaeval  and 
still  earlier  times  cannot  be  wisely  and  inoffensively 
modified?  There  is  usually  some  sort  of  forced  sense 
in  which  almost  any  statement  can  be  judged  to  have 
in  it  an  element  of  truth,  especially  a  statement  which 
embodies  the  beliefs  of  many  generations.  But 
when  the  element  of  truth  is  quite  other  than  had  been 
supposed,  and  when  the  original  statement  has  to  be 
tortured  in  order  to  display  it,  it  may  be  time  to  con- 
sider whether  without  harm  its  mode  of  expression 
can  be  reconsidered  and  redrafted, — to  the  ultimate 
benefit  indeed  of  that  religion  of  truth  and  clearness 
which  we  all  seek  to  attain. 

No  doubt  the  crudity  of  popular  statements  of  doc- 
trine is  recognised  by  many  modern  theologians  and 
experts,  who  have  travelled  far  beyond  the  original 
intention  and  superficial  interpretation  of  their 
creeds  and  formularies;  and  these  may  be  ready  and 
anxious  for  revision,  although  their  responsible  ut- 

197 


198  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

terances  on  fundamental  subjects  are  duly  restrained 
and  cautious,  lest  they  offend  the  ignorant  whose 
minds  are  not  yet  ripe.  In  that  case  it  may  be  per- 
missible for  laymen  to  show  that  they  at  least  are 
ready  for  a  doctrinal  revision — a  kind  of  stocktaking 
such  as  is  necessary  from  time  to  time  in  all  living 
and  expanding  subjects,  and  is  especially  necessary 
now  after  a  century  of  notable  advance  in  natural 
knowledge. 

It  may  be  objected  that  revision  of  religious  for- 
mulae is  no  concern  of  mine ;  and  there  is  force  in  the 
retort.  I  find  that  I  have  said  below  that  harm  is 
liable  to  dog  the  footsteps  of  a  well-meaning  fanatic 
or  a  blatant  fool.  Possibly  it  is  in  something  akin 
to  the  spirit  of  the  fanatic  that  I  take  the  risk  of  en- 
tering upon  what  may  prove  a  thorny  path,  though 
I  earnestly  trust  that  very  little  pain  to  others  need 
accrue  from  any  errors  of  mine. 

Consider,  then,  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  and 
let  us  ask  whether  the  expression  of  that  doctrine 
traditionally  and  officially  held  or  supposed  to  be  held 
by  the  churches  to-day  is  satisfactory. 

In  days  when  the  vicariousness  of  sin  could  be  ac- 
cepted, and  when  an  original  fall  of  Adam  could  be 
held  as  imputed  to  the  race,  it  was  natural  to  admit 
the  possibility  of  a  vicarious  punishment  and  to  ac- 
cept an  imputed  righteousness.  In  the  days  when 
God  could  be  thought  of  as  an  angry  Jehovah  who 
sent  pestilences  until  He  was  propitiated  by  the  smell 
of  a  burnt-offering,  it  was  possible  to  imagine  that 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  199 

the  just  anger  of  an  offended  God  could  be  met  by 
the  sacrifice  of  an  innocent  victim. 

The  fall  of  man  and  the  redemption  by  blood  there- 
fore in  a  measure  go  together,  and  may  be  said  to 
constitute  the  backbone  of  Evangelical  Christianity, 
which  in  some  of  its  crude  and  revivalistic  forms 
always  lays  great  stress  upon  blood  and  its  potent  re- 
deeming efficacy. 

But  all  this  is  much  older  than  Christianity;  and  it 
is  clarifying  to  realise  how  these  strange  doctrines, 
preached  even  at  this  day,  represent  a  survival  of  re- 
ligious beliefs  held  five  or  six  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era. 

In  those  admirable  translations  of  Euripides  with 
which  Professor  Gilbert  Murray  has  delighted  the 
heart  not  only  of  scholars  but  of  at  least  one  student 
of  science,  we  find  in  his  notes  on  The  Bacchce  the  fol- 
lowing passages: 

"A  curious  relic  of  primitive  superstition  and 
cruelty  remained  firmly  embedded  in  Orphism — a 
doctrine  irrational  and  unintelligible,  and  for  that 
very  reason  wrapped  in  the  deepest  and  most  sacred 
mystery:  a  belief  in  the  sacrifice  of  Dionysus  him- 
self, and  the  purification  of  man  by  his  blood. 

"It  seems  possible  that  the  savage  Thracians,  in 
the  fury  of  their  worship  on  the  mountains,  when 
they  were  possessed  by  the  god  and  became  'wild 
beasts,'  actually  tore  with  their  teeth  and  hands  any 
hares,  goats,  fawns,  or  the  like  that  they  came  across. 
There  survives  a  constant  tradition  of  inspired  Bac- 
chanals in  their  miraculous  strength  tearing  even  bulls 


200  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

asunder — a  feat,  happily,  beyond  the  bounds  of  hu- 
man possibility.  The  wild  beast  that  tore  was,  of 
course,  the  savage  god  himself.  And  by  one  of  these 
curious  confusions  of  thought,  which  seem  so  incon- 
ceivable to  us  and  so  absolutely  natural  and  obvious 
to  primitive  men,  the  beast  torn  was  also  the  god! 
The  Orphic  congregations  of  later  times,  in  their 
most  holy  gatherings,  solemnly  partook  of  the  blood 
of  a  bull,  which  was,  by  a  mystery,  the  blood  of 
Dionysus  Zagreus  himself,  the  'Bull  of  God,'  slain 
in  sacrifice  for  the  purification  of  man. 


"It  is  noteworthy,  and  throws  much  light  on  the 
spirit  of  Orphism,  that,  apart  from  this  sacramental 
tasting  of  the  blood,  the  Orphic  worshipper  held  it  an 
abomination  to  eat  the  flesh  of  animals  at  all.  ...  It 
fascinated  him  just  because  it  was  so  incredibly  primi- 
tive and  uncanny;  because  it  was  a  mystery  which 
transcended  reason!"1 

Professor  Murray  seems  to  think  it  hard  for  a 
modern  to  contemplate  the  victim  and  the  priest  as 
in  any  sense  one  person,  but  orthodox  religious  people 
will  experience  no  difficulty,  as  is  evidenced  by  the 
line  they  are  accustomed  to  sing: 

"Himself  the  Victim  and  Himself  the  Priest," 

which,  it  must  be  admitted,  forms  a  curious  parallel; 
though  the  meaning  is  simple  and  legitimate  enough, 

i  Mr.  L.  P.  Jacks  has  called  my  attention  to  an  interesting  article  on  a 
similar  subject,  by  Dr.  Farnell,  in  the  Hibbert  Journal. 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  201 

namely,  that  the  sacrifice  is  voluntary:  else,  indeed 
were  it  mere  execution.  But  a  few  strange  hymns 
are  more  worthy  of  the  worship  of  Dionysus,  at  least 
in  some  of  its  older  and  more  primitive  and  purer 
forms,  than  of  a  place  in  a  church-service  (A.  &  M.) 
collection  of  to-day.  These  hymns  emphasise,  for 
the  edification  of  the  laity,  the  more  barbarous  con- 
comitants of  sacrificial  and  vicarious  redemption,  by 
blood  drawn  from  and  pain  inflicted  on  an  innocent 
victim  who  is  likewise  a  god. 

Sometimes  the  blood  is  represented  as  being  used 
for  cleansing  purposes : 

"Oh,  wash  me  in  Thy  precious  blood." 

Sometimes  it  is  described  as  a  vivifying  draught : 

"May  those  precious  fountains 
Drink  to  thirsty  souls  afford;" 

but  pagan  precedents  are  closely  followed,  and  pagan 
survival  is  clear. 

The  idea  of  sacrificial  suffering  judicially  self- 
inflicted  by  a  widely  vengeful  Deity  is  an  essential 
element  in  popular  theology : 

"He,  Who  once  in  righteous  vengeance 
Whelmed  the  world  beneath  the  flood, 
Once  again  in  mercy  cleansed  it 
With  His  own  most  precious  Blood, 
Coming  from  His  throne  on  high 
On  the  painful  Cross  to  die. 

"We  were  sinners  doomed  to  die; 
Jesus  paid  the  penalty." 


202  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

It  is  more  like  a  legal  fiction  or  commercial  transac- 
tion than  a  natural  process. 

"Scourged  with  unrelenting  fury 
For  the  sins  which  we  deplore, 
By  His  livid  stripes  He  heals  us, 
Raising  us  to  fall  no  more." 

"Had  Jesus  never  bled  and  died, 
Then  what  could  thee  and  all  betide 
But  uttermost  damnation?" 

This  sort  of  crude  materialism  naturally  leads  to  a 
kind  of  idolatry: 

"Faithful  Cross,  above  all  other, 
One  and  only  noble  Tree, 
None  in  foliage,  none  in  blossom, 
None  in  fruit  thy  peer  may  be; 
Sweetest  wood,  and  sweetest  iron; 
Sweetest  weight  is  hung  on  thee. 

"Thou  alone  wast  counted  worthy 
This  world's   ransom  to  sustain, 
That  a  shipwrecked  race  for  ever 
Might  a  port  of  refuge  gain, 
With  the  sacred  Blood  anointed 
Of  the  Lamb  for  sinners  slain." 

Suppose,  however,  that  the  belief  in  the  efficacy 
of  sacrifice  is  old,  and  that  our  form  of  it  has  a  long1 
ancestry  which  may  be  traced:  that  need  not  under- 
mine its  essential  truth;  it  will  only  mean  that  hu- 
manity had  glimpses  of  truth  earlier  than  the  full 
revelation,  and  the  familiar  doctrine  of  "types"  will 
be  appealed  to. 

In  certain  beliefs,  such  as  that  of  immortality,  I 
should  myself  allow  the  argument  to  have  weight. 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  203 

and  should  not  be  unwilling  to  appeal  to  the  antiquity 
of  human  tradition  as  tending  in  favour  of  some  sort 
of  truth  underlying  this  perennial  and  protean  faith ; 
and  so  in  the  matter  of  vicarious  punishment  and 
bloody  atonement  by  an  innocent  victim  or  by  an  in- 
carnate god  for  the  sins  of  humanity,  if  we  could 
feel  a  real  and  helpful  truth  underlying  it,  we  might 
admit  that  the  antiquity  of  the  tradition  was  even  in 
its  favour.  But  it  cannot  be  that  all  religious  creeds, 
without  exception,  which  are  inherited  from  barbar- 
ous times  have  a  true  ethical  significance:  some  of 
them  must  surely  be  mistaken,  and  it  becomes  a  ques- 
tion which  of  them  we  may  retain  and  which  we  must 
gradually  seek  to  emancipate  ourselves  from.  I 
would  not  be  in  the  least  dogmatic  in  such  a  matter, 
but  surely  it  is  generally  recognised  that  although  the 
sufferings  and  violent  death  of  Christ  were  natural 
consequences  of  His  birth  so  far  in  advance  of  His 
age,  and  although  the  pity  and  terror  of  such  a 
ghastly  tragedy  has  a  purifying  and  sacramental  in- 
fluence, yet  we  are  now  unable  to  detect  in  it  anything 
of  the  nature  of  punishment;  nor  do  we  imagine  for  a 
moment  that  an  angry  God  was  appeased  by  it,  and 
is  consequently  disposed  to  treat  more  lightly  the  sins 
of  men  here  and  now,  or  any  otherwise  than  as  they 
have  always  been  treated  by  a  constant,  steadfast,  per- 
severing Universe. 

Nor  can  we  suppose  that  leaders  of  theologic 
thought  are  able  to  derive  satisfaction  from  the  more 
modern  doctrine  (perhaps,  for  all  I  know,  a  heresy) 
that  it  was  not  so  much  an  infinite  punishment  as  an 


204  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

infinite  repentance  that  was  efficacious;  so  that,  ade- 
quate repentance  having  been  achieved  once  for  all 
long  ago,  sinners  have  nothing  further  to  do  but  to 
believe  and  acquiesce  in  it. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  higher  man  of  to-day  is 
not  worrying  about  his  sins  at  all,  still  less  about  their 
punishment.  His  mission,  if  he  is  good  for  anything, 
is  to  be  up  and  doing,1  and  in  so  far  as  he  acts 
wrongly  or  unwisely  he  expects  to  suffer.  He  may 
unconsciously  plead  for  mitigation  on  the  ground  of 
good  intentions,2  but  never  either  consciously  or  un- 
consciously will  anyone  but  a  cur  ask  for  the  punish- 
ment to  fall  on  someone  else,  nor  rejoice  if  told  that 
it  already  has  so  fallen. 

As  for  "original  sin"  or  "birth  sin"  or  other  notion 
of  that  kind,  by  which  is  partly  meant  the  sin  of  his 
parents, — that  sits  asbolutely  lightly  on  him.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  it  is  non-existent,  and  no  one  but  a 
monk  could  have  invented  it.  Whatever  it  be  it  is 
not  a  business  for  which  we  are  responsible.  We  did 
not  make  the  world ;  and  an  attempt  to  punish  us  for 
our  animal  origin  and  ancestry  would  be  simply 
comic,  if  anyone  could  be  found  who  was  willing  to 
take  it  seriously. 

Here  we  are ;  we  have  risen,  as  to  our  bodies,  from 
the  beasts ;  as  a  race  the  struggle  has  been  severe,  and 
there  have  been  both  rises  and  falls.  We  have  been 
helped  now  and  again  by  bright  and  shining  indi- 
vidual examples — true  incarnations  of  diviner  spirits 

i  Matt.  xxiv.  46,  xii.  43.  2  Matt  xxv.  25. 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  205 

than  our  own, — notably  by  one  supremely  bright 
Spirit  who  blazed  out  nineteen  hundred  years  ago, 
and  was  speedily  murdered  by  the  representatives  of 
that  class  whose  mission  it  appears  to  be  to  wage  war 
against  the  prophets,  and  to  do  their  worst  to  exter- 
minate new  ideas  and  kinds  of  goodness  to  which  they 
are  not  accustomed.  Fortunately  for  the  race,  they 
are  only  able  to  kill  the  body ;  the  soul,  the  inspiration, 
the  germ  of  a  new  and  higher  faith,  seems  for  ever 
beyond  their  grasp. 

But  now  that  orthodox  people  enthusiastically 
recognise  his  supreme  goodness,  they  take  steps  to 
deny  that  he  was  effectively  man, — only  half  man 
say  some,  only  quarter  man  say  others:1  human  only 
on  one  side  they  feel  he  must  have  been,  else  he  could 
not  have  been  so  good,  so  wise,  so  patient.  So  the 
hope  of  a  higher  humanity  is  to  be  taken  from  us,  in 
order  that  man's  sins  may  be  superhumanly  atoned  for 
and  an  angry  God  illogically  appeased. 

Well,  well!  demi-gods  were  common  enough  in 
those  days.  And  again  it  may  be  said  that  the  anti- 
quity of  the  belief  is  to  its  credit,  and  that  these  tales 
of  the  gods  2  were  but  crude  heraldings  of  a  divine 
truth  some  dav  to  be  made  clear. 

But  why,  why,  what  is  the  good  of  it?  Can  a  di- 
vine spirit  not  enter  into  a  man  born  of  two  parents? 
Is  divine  inspiration  to  be  limited  to  a  being  of  ex- 

i  This  is  a  reference  to  the  doctrine  concerning  the  supposed  origin 
of  the  Virgin. 

2  Familiar  to  the  Jews  during  their  Babylonian  captivity  and  the 
Roman  conquest. 


206  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

ceptional  parentage?  If  we  grant  that  it  is  a  physi- 
ological condition  towards  or  at  which  the  race  should 
aim, — if  we  suppose  that  some  day  we  shall  have 
one  parent  only,  and  that  that  is  to  be  our  apotheosis, 
— there  would  be  meaning  in  it.  In  that  case  Christ 
would  indeed  be  the  first-fruits,  and  would  repre- 
sent some  unknown  possibility  in  our  physical  na- 
ture. But  do  people  think  that?  And  if  not, 
what  is  the  virtue  of  semi-parentage?  If  for  a  Di- 
vine Incarnation  we  admit  human  parentage  at  all, 
we  may  as  well  admit  it  altogether.  If  a  taint  is 
conveyed  by  inheritance  from  or  dependence  on  hu- 
man flesh — grossly  built  up  by  daily  food  of  terres- 
trial materials  and  grossly  cleared  of  refuse — that 
taint  appertains  not  to  fatherhood  only,  but  to  mother- 
hood also;  and  the  only  way  to  avoid  the  imaginary 
stain  is  to  postulate  a  being  sprung  like  Pallas  from 
the  brain  of  Zeus — a  pure  embodiment  of  thought,  a 
true  psychological  "conception."  That  Christ  pos- 
sessed a  divine  spirit  in  excess,  to  an  extent  unknown 
to  us — that  he  was  an  embodiment  of  truly  Divine 
attributes,1  which  as  thus  revealed  we  worship — may 
be  willingly  admitted;  that  he  represents  a  standard 
or  peak  towards  which  humanity  may  try  to  aim,  is  a 
tenable  and  helpful  creed;  but  that  his  body  was  ab- 
normally produced,  even  if  it  be  the  fact,  seems  to 
give  no  assistance.  I  derive  no  sort  of  comfort  or 
intellectual  aid  from  an  idea  of  that  kind. 

For  what  is  virgin  birth?  merely  a  case  of  par- 

i  John  xvi.  28,  xvii.  4. 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  207 

thenogenesis.  It  has  been  asserted  perhaps  errone- 
ously, that  X-rays  have  the  power  to  produce  parthe- 
nogenetic  development  in  some  lowly  kinds  of  ova.1 
It  is  doubtless  thinkable  enough.  I  would  not  say  it 
is  impossible,  but  that  it  is  ethically  useless.  The 
lowest  organisms  multiply  by  fission,  sexual  reproduc- 
tion comes  in  later  as  an  improved  form ;  but  it  comes 
in  very  low  down — as  low  down  as  the  higher  plants 
— and  exists  throughout  the  main  animal  kingdom. 
Possibly  at  some  other  stage,  or  by  some  other  pro- 
cess, it  may  be  dispensed  with.  If  so,  it  will  be  a  bi- 
ological fact  of  scientific  interest,  and,  if  ever  applic- 
able to  man,  a  development  of  astounding  social  sig- 
nificance, but  nothing  more.  There  is  no  virtue  in 
multiplication  by  fission,  any  more  than  there  is 
vice  in  multiplication  by  sex.  Both  are  superla- 
tively interesting  facts,  like  many  other  facts  of 
science,  and  no  one  can  say  that  we  understand  the 
extraordinary  truth  that  a  gentle  warmth  applied  for 
a  certain  time  to  a  sparrow's  egg  will  result  in  a  live 
creature  breaking  forth,  which  had  not  existed  before, 
endowed  with  power  to  live  and  feel  and  grow  and 
propagate  his  kind  to  the  third  and  fourth  thousandth 
generation.  For  some  reason — a  wise  and  good 
social  reason — mankind,  living  in  a  crowded  state,  has 
surrounded  the  multiplication  process  with  ritual  and 
emotion  and  fear.  No  doubt  this  is  absolutely  justi- 
fiable and  right,  and,  by  experience,  necessary;  but  it 
may  in  some  cases  have  gone  too  far ;  and  it  seems  to 

i  British  Medical  Journal,  13th  February  1904,  p.  383. 


208  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

me  to  go  too  far  when  it  denies  that  a  divine  spirit 
can  enter  into  any  body  except  one  that  has  been  pro- 
duced in  an  exceptional  way.  Whatever  the  mys- 
terious phrase  "Son  of  God"  means,  and  it  probably 
means  something  mighty  and  true,  it  cannot  mean 
that.     A  belief  in  that  is  materialism  run  rampant. 

And  yet  even  materialism  need  not  be  a  term  of 
abuse ;  for  if  matter  be  the  living  garment  of  God, — 
as  it  certainly  is  the  temporary  raiment  of  man, — and 
if  the  Divine  Spirit  be  immanent  in  everything  that 
exists,  I  do  not  say  that  a  glorified  materialism  may 
not  enshrine  some  elements  of  truth,  when  properly 
understood;  nor  would  I  seek  to  deny  the  benefit  of 
Sacraments,  in  spite  of  their  curiously  material  char- 
acter. But  the  vicarious  expiation,  the  judicial  pun- 
ishment of  the  innocent,  and  the  appeasement  of  an 
angry  God,  are  surely  now  recognisable  as  savage  in- 
ventions ;  though  they  have  left  their  traces  on  surviv- 
ing formulae,  which  accordingly  have  to  be  explained 
away.  And  so  likewise  the  superior  virtue  of  a  one- 
sided human  origin,  for  any  Redeemer  or  Exemplar 
of  mankind,  seems  to  me  unworthy  of  a  period  of 
spiritual  awakening,  of  a  cleansing  acceptance  of  the 
facts  of  nature,  of  a  purification  of  the  material  uni- 
verse by  the  recognised  permeance  of  an  immanent 
energising  God,  of  whom  we  too  are  fragmentary, 
struggling,  helpful  portions. 

II 

What,  then,  are  the  Truths  underlying  the  great 
mysteries  connected  with  the  appearance  and  work 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  209 

of  Christ?  Here  I  approach  the  positive  part  of  my 
task,  entering  a  region  already  flooded  with  literature ; 
yet  must  I  not  shrink  from  an  attempt  to  supplement 
negative  criticism  by  such  provisional  and  tentative 
positive  judgment  as  I  have  been  able  to  form,  from 
the  scientific  point  of  view — the  only  kind  of  judg- 
ment to  which  I  am  entitled, — concerning  the  under- 
lying Realities.  No  justification  of  this  course 
should  be  necessary,  because  a  fine  jewel  only  flashes 
the  brighter  when  turned  about  so  as  to  expose  every 
facet  to  the  light;  so  I  proceed  without  hesitation, 
though  as  briefly  as  is  consistent  with  intelligibility, 
to  set  them  down: 

1.  Incarnation  with  Pre-exisfence. 

2.  Revelation  or  Discovery. 

3.  Continuity  and  persistent  Influence. 

The  utterance  of  science  on  these  heads  is  not  loud 
and  is  not  positive,  but  I  claim  that  at  least  it  is  not 
negative.  No  science  asserts  that  our  personality  will 
cease  a  quarter  of  a  century  hence,  nor  does  any 
science  assert  that  it  began  half  a  century  ago. 
Spiritual  existence  "before  all  worlds"  is  a  legitimate 
creed. 

No  science  maintains  that  the  whole  of  our  person- 
ality is  incarnate  here  and  now :  it  is  in  fact  beginning 
to  surmise  the  contrary,  and  to  suspect  the  existence 
of  a  larger  transcendental  individuality,  with  which 
men  of  genius  are  in  touch  more  than  ordinary  men. 
We  may  be  all  partial  incarnations  of  a  larger 
self.  Incarnation  of  a  portion  of  a  divine  spirit 
therefore  involves  no  scientific  dislocation  or  contra- 


210  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

diction,  nor  need  it  involve  any  material  mechanism 
other  than  that  to  which  we  are  accustomed.1  For 
only  the  germ  is  derived  from  others;  the  body  is 
built  under  the  guidance  of  the  indwelling,  living, 
personal  entity :  it  is  adapted  to  and  serves  to  display 
the  features  of  that  entity  under  the  limitations  and 
disabilities  of  a  material  aspect;  as  the  epiphany  of 
an  artist's  conception  is  restrained  by  the  limitations 
of  his  medium,  as  well  as  by  his  lack  of  executive  skill. 

Granting,  then,  the  advent  of  as  lofty  a  Spirit  as 
we  can  conceive, — perfectly  human  on  the  bodily  side, 
with  all  that  that  implies,  and  perfectly  Divine  on  the 
spiritual  side,  whatever  that  may  mean, — what  sort 
of  result  may  be  expected  to  follow? 

Consider  the  position.  Here  is  mankind,  risen 
from  the  beasts,  making  gods  in  the  likeness  of  its 
ancestors, — in  something  worse  than  its  own  likeness, 
— cruel,  jealous,  bloody  gods,  who  order  massacres 
of  helpless  non-combatants  and  cattle,  the  courts  of 
whose  temples  and  tabernacles  are  a  shambles  served 
by  a  greedy  self-seeking  priesthood  and  by  profess- 
ional religious  people  who  play  to  a  gallery.2  Into 
such  a  world,  that  is  to  say,  a  world  with  these  general 
characteristics,  in  spite  of  occasional  bursts  of  bright- 
ness and  much  homely  virtue,  imagine  the  thorough 
incarnation  of  a  truly  Divine  Spirit,  and  what  would 
be  the  consequences? 

The  immediate  consequences  we  know.  On  the 
part  of  the  priests  hostility  and  murder;  on  the  part 

i  John  i.  12-14;  1  John  iii.  2. 
2  Matt,  xxiii.  5. 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  211 

of  peasantry,  curiosity  growing  into  sympathy ;  on  the 
part  of  a  few  earnest  souls  love  and  adoration.  But 
what  in  the  long-run  would  be  the  permanent  conse- 
quences? Surely  a  discovery  of  the  truer  nature  of 
God :  one  of  the  veils  would  be  drawn  aside  from  the 
face  of  Deity,  and  there  would  partially  emerge,  not 
Jehovah  any  more  than  Baal,  but  a  Being  whom  it 
was  possible  to  love,  to  serve,  to  worship ;  for  whom  it 
is  possible  to  live  and  work,  and,  if  need  be,  die. 
There  would  be  the  beginnings  of  a  real  at-one-ment 
between  man  and  God.1 

Observe  that  the  influence  exerted  is  exerted  wholly 
on  man.  The  attitude  of  God  has  changed  no  whit ; 
there  never  was  any  hostility  to  be  washed  out  in 
blood;  He  had  felt  no  stupid  wrath  at  the  blind  ef- 
forts, the  risings  and  sinkings  of  men  struggling  in 
the  mire  from  bestial  to  human  attributes;  there  was 
nothing  to  appease.  But  there  was  plenty  to  reveal : 
an  infinitude  of  compassion,  an  ideal  of  righteousness, 
the  inevitableness  of  law,  the  hopelessness  of  rebel- 
lion,2 the  power  of  faith,  the  quenching  of  supersti- 
tious fear  in  filial  love ;  a  real  and  not  a  mechanical  sal- 
vation, no  legal  quibble  but  a  deep  eternal  truth.  Let 
man  but  see  the  face  of  God,  so  far  as  it  can  be  re- 
vealed in  the  flesh,  and  he  will  catch  a  glimpse  of  a 
Holy  of  Holies  such  as  he  had  not  conceived.  The 
savage  inventions  of  a  jealous  God  who  resents  the 
worship  of  anything  but  himself,  who  thinks  more  of 
his  own  glory  and  dignity  than  of  the  creative  work 

i  John  xiv.  7 ;  Mark  xv.  38.  2  John  xvi.  8. 


212  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

of  evolution,  who  arranges  that  if  people  do  not  theor- 
ise correctly  here  and  now  then  they  shall  suffer  eter- 
nal pain — all  these  ignorances  fall  into  the  region  of 
blasphemous  fables,  henceforth  to  be  promulgated 
by  fanatics  alone. 

And  yet  let  us  be  fair.  The  worship  of  Jehovah 
wras  based  on  a  recognition  of  the  majesty  and  sa- 
credness  of  Law;  an  element  nevermore  to  be  de- 
stroyed. And  as  to  punishment  for  wrong  belief, — 
the  notion  of  an  eternal  penahy  attaching  to  discord- 
ance or  dislocation  between  ourselves  and  the  Universe 
of  which  we  are  a  part  is  a  true  and  luminous  idea. 
When  our  beliefs  are  out  of  harmony  with  facts,  when 
our  theories  are  false,  we  are  liable  to  act  erroneously, 
and  accordingly  to  suffer  by  conflict  with  inevitable 
law,  even  though  we  act  in  accordance  with  our  faith, 
and  so  are  not  consciously  wicked  or  infidel.  The 
connexion  between  true  theory  and  right  action  is  real 
and  close,  although  very  likely  the  commonest  faults 
of  men  are  due  less  to  wrong  notions  than  to  weak 
wills;  but  the  sins  due  to  wrong  theory  are  liable  to 
be  much  more  really  deadly1;  there  is  no  wickedness 
so  violent  as  that  organised  by  the  fanatic  who  thinks 
he  is  doing  God  service,  nor  is  there  any  harm  wrorse 
than  can  follow  the  footsteps  of  a  well-meaning  bla- 
tant fool.  And  the  penalty  is  in  a  sense  eternal,  that 
is  to  say  seonic,2  for  it  is  incurable  except  by  mental 

i  Matt,  xxiii.  30,  34. 

2  There  seems  to  be  a  popular  idea  abroad  that  the  derivation  of  the 
word  eternal  signifies  without  end — I  suppose  from  e  and  terminus — ■ 
and  that  the  word  geonic  is  milder.  But  in  truth  they  mean  just  the 
same;  only  one  is  the  Latin  and  the  other  the  Greek  form.  The  sup- 
posed popular  derivation  is  a  false  one. 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  213 

and  spiritual  revolution.  So  long  as  wrong  beliefs 
continue,  so  long  there  must  be  a  sense  of  dislocation, 
a  feeling  of  friction  and  of  grit:  the  only  remedy  is 
to  get  right  with  the  Universe.  The  sin  and  the  dam- 
nation are  co-eternal  or  co-seonal. 

The  law  thus  stated  is  no  theologic  dogma,  it  re- 
sults from  no  arbitrary  fiat,  it  is  the  commonplace  ex- 
pression of  a  natural  fact.  It  is  exemplified  in  the 
running  of  every  piece  of  human  machinery,  and  in 
the  working  of  our  own  bodies.  Anything  out  of 
gear  is  a  source  of  disquiet,  of  inefficiency,  and  of 
pain;  health  and  happiness  result  from  a  restoration 
of  harmony. 

How  the  grit  got  into  the  cosmic  organism  may  be 
a  hard  question;  perhaps  it  has  never  yet  been  out. 
This  may  be  a  narrow,  temporal  way  of  conceiving 
the  matter — but  let  it  pass  for  the  present.  Anyhow 
we  could  not  have  become  what  we  are  without  it; 
and  the  word  "grit"  has  acquired  a  forcible  psychic 
connotation.  After  all,  grit  is  only  matter  out  of 
place ;  it  has  no  intrinsic  or  absolute  quality.  Whether 
it  exists  for  good  or  for  ill,  we  did  not  put  it  there; 
though  it  is  our  privilege  to  help  to  remove  it.  We 
are  the  artisans  of  creation,  at  least  in  this  outlying 
planetary  district,  and  a  magnificent  co-operation  is 
our  highest  privilege.1 

Almost  every  widespread  doctrine  has  a  meaning 
and  enshrines  a  truth,  visible  when  freed  from  its 
blasphemous   accretions;  and   the  doctrine   of  seonic 

i  John  v.  17. 


214  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

damnation,  even  as  too  specifically  interpreted  by 
Athanasius,  is  a  glimpse  of  the  truth  that  whosoever 
will  enter  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord  must  endeavour  to 
understand  rightly  the  cosmic  scheme,1  and  that  ex- 
cept a  man  get  into  harmony  with  Truth  and  Reality 
he  cannot  ascend  to  the  destinv  in  store  for  him — He 
cannot  be  "saved." 

In  the  same  way  a  germ  of  truth  can  be  detected  in 
that  persistent  element  of  popular  theology,  the  idea 
of  sacrificial  suffering,  self-inflicted.  There  must  be 
such  a  germ,  else  the  belief  could  not  have  proved 
itself  of  such  "saving"  power; — and  even  the  current 
crudities  of  expression  may  have  had  their  use,  in  the 
recent  transitional  age  of  the  earth's  history — the  geo- 
logical epoch  during  which  the  evolution  of  man  has 
been  beginning — that  uneducated  age  out  of  which 
we  cannot  yet  be  said  to  have  emerged.  The  essence 
of  truth  contained  in  it  would  appear  to  be  that  the 
responsible  task  of  evolution  from  animal  to  higher 
man,  the  struggle  humanam  condere  gentem,  could 
not  be  undertaken  and  carried  through  even  by  Deity 
without  grievous  suffering  and  agonising  patience  2 ; 
and  this  sympathetic  shudder  through  the  whole  of 
Existence  might  well  be  parabolically  expressed  in 
terms  of  current  altruistic  sacrificial  legend.  Subject 
to  proper  interpretation,  the  legend  has  a  meaning: 
the  mistake  lay  in  imagining  it  an  expiatory  transac- 
tion, instead  of  a  natural  and  necessary  process,  quite 
unlike  the  alternate  moods  of  fury  and  affection  some- 
times exhibited  by  a  chief  to  slaves. 

i  Matt.  xxii.  11.  2  Rom.  viii.  22. 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  215 

It  was  not  a  bare  necessary  and  natural  process, 
however ;  the  aspects  of  Deity  are  so  infinite  that  they 
cannot  be  grasped  simultaneously.  The  personal  as- 
pect is  as  vivid  as  any  of  the  others1  and,  from  this 
point  of  view,  the  genuineness  of  Divine  suffering, 
no  matter  how  inevitable,2  has  always  been  recognised 
as  a  revelation  of  Divine  and  Fatherly  love. 

The  redeeming  and  elevating  efficacy  of  such  a 
conviction  is  manifest.  The  perception  of  something 
in  the  Universe  which  not  only  makes  for  righteous- 
ness, but  which  loves  and  sympathises  in  the  process; 
and  yet  is  no  mere  indiscriminate  charity,  weakly  re- 
lieving man  from  the  consequences  of  his  blunders  or 
stealthily  undermining  his  powers  of  self-help,  but 
a  true  benevolence,  which  healthily  and  strongly  and 
if  need  be  sternly  convinces  him  that  the  path  of  duty 
is  the  path  of  joy,3  that  sacrifice  and  not  selfishness 
is  the  road  to  the  heights  of  existence,4  that  it  is  far 
better  to  suffer  wrong  than  to  do  wrong  :5 — such  a  per- 
ception inevitably  raises  man  far  above  "the  yelp  of 
the  beast,"  "saves"  him,  saves  him  truly,  from  aeons 
of  degradation,  and  enables  him  to  "stand  on  the 
heights  of  his  life  with  a  glimpse  of  a  height  that  is 
higher." 

Selfishness  long  continued  must  lead  to  isolation 
and  so  to  a  sort  of  practical  extinction:6  it  is  like  a 

i  See  Chapter  II.  §  iv.  above. 

2  Luke  xv.  4. 

3  Matt.  xxv.  21,  30. 

4  Matt.  xvi.  25 ;  John  xii.  32. 

5  Plato,  Gorgias  4G9,  conversation  with  Polus ;  and  elsewhere, 
s  Cecilia  de  Noel,  by  Lanoe  Falconer. 


216  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

disintegrating  or  repulsive  force  in  the  material 
cosmos,  while  love  is  like  a  cohesive  and  constructive 
force.  All  this  is  no  new  doctrine,  thank  goodness !  it 
has  been  preached  and  practised  by  the  prophets  and 
saints  of  the  human  race  for  generations — by  some 
mighty  ones  even  before  the  advent  of  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth. For  that  love  is  the  quickening  force  of  the 
spiritual  universe,  and  that  its  fruition  would  lead  to 
super-humanity,  had  been  clearly  stated  before  it  was 
in  the  Fourth  Gospel  supremely  emphasised;  and  the 
words  put  by  the  Socrates  of  Plato  into  the  mouth 
of  Diotima  the  prophetess  of  Mantineia  1  have  a  deep 
and  growing  meaning  for  those  who  have  ears  to 
hear. 

A  discovery  once  made  by  the  human  race  is  perma- 
nent: it  fades  no  more,  and  its  influence  grows  from 
age  to  age.  We  are  now  beginning  to  realise  a  fur- 
ther stage  in  the  process  of  atonement;  we  are  rising 
to  the  conviction  that  we  are  a  part  of  nature,  and  so 
a  part  of  God ;  that  the  whole  creation — the  One  and 
the  Many  and  All-One — is  travailing  together 
towards  some  great  end;  and  that  now,  after  ages  of 
development,  we  have  at  length  become  conscious  por- 
tions of  the  great  scheme,  and  can  co-operate  in  it 
with  knowledge  and  with  joy.  We  are  no  aliens  in  a 
stranger  universe  governed  by  an  outside  God ;  we  are 
parts  of  a  developing  whole,  all  enfolded  in  an  em- 
bracing and  interpenetrating  love,  of  which  we  too, 
each  to  other,  sometimes  experience  the  joy  too  deep 

i  Symposium,  191-212.     Best  translation  in  Myers'  Human  Personality, 
vol.  i.  p.  113. 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  217 

for  words.  And  this  strengthening  vision,  this  sense 
of  union  with  Divinity,  this,  and  not  anything  artifi- 
cial or  legal  or  commercial,  is  what  science  will  some 
day  tell  us  is  the  inner  meaning  of  the  Redemption  of 
Man. 


CHAPTER  XI 
SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH 

IN  the  last  chapter  certain  great  topics  were  dealt 
with  so  briefly  that  if  left  without  amplification 
they  may  give  rise  to  misunderstanding;  indeed  their 
treatment  has  already  aroused  some  criticism,  notably 
an  extremely  friendly  comment  by  Dr.  Talbot,  now 
Bishop  of  Southwark,  published  in  the  Hibbert  Jour- 
nal, wherein,  while  criticising  judicially,  he  neverthe- 
less holds  out  a  hand  of  welcome. 

This  article  was  replied  to  sufficiently  in  the  suc- 
ceeding number  of  the  Hibbert  Journal,  and  not 
much  of  my  reply  need  be  here  reproduced. 

I  will  only  say  that  whereas  in  the  greater  part  of 
the  present  book,  and  indeed  of  my  writings  gener- 
ally, the  mode  of  treatment  aims  at  being  positive 
rather  than  negative — seeking  to  construct  rather 
than  to  destroy,  and  hoping  to  replace  error  quietly 
by  substitution  of  truth — the  last  chapter  does 
to  some  extent  take  a  negative  or  destructive  attitude 
and  accordingly  demands  extremely  careful  treat- 
ment. 

I  do  not  conceive  of  myself,  however,  as  attacking 
Theology  or  Theological  doctrine:  I  discern  an  ele- 
ment of  truth  in  nearly  every  doctrine,  perhaps  in 
quite  every  doctrine  which  the  human  race  has  been 

218 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  219 

able  to  believe  for  a  long  period ;  but  I  am  seeking  to 
scrutinise  more  closely,  and  if  possible  display  to 
greater  advantage,  that  side  of  those  doctrines  which 
faces  us  across  the  frontier  of  our  scientific  territory. 
This  side  has  been  less  efficiently  attended  to  by  the 
builders  than  the  facade  devoted  to  edification;  and 
some  or  our  own  outworks  approach  so  near  to  the 
Theological  position  on  its  more  prosaic  side,  that  an 
occasional  raid,  inspired  by  admiration  and  conducted 
with  reverence,  may  be  pardoned. 

It  looks  to  me  as  if  part  of  the  building  were  need- 
lessly obscured  by  coatings  and  stucco  and  excres- 
cences, once  thought  ornamental.  Perhaps  this  ex- 
traneous matter  had  the  useful  effect  of  protecting 
the  building  through  times  of  ignorance  and  violence, 
but  some  of  it  is  now  seen  to  be  little  better  than  dis- 
figurement and  crudity,  hiding  the  beautiful  structure 
beneath;  it  was  this  extraneous  matter  alone  that  I 
intended  to  attack  in  my  last  chapter. 

But  in  this  legitimate  restoration  work  at  the  pres- 
ent day  a  number  of  operatives  are  engaged;  some 
doing  their  occasional  best  from  outside,  like  myself, 
others,  as  regular  workmen  acting  from  within,  like 
Dr.  Talbot.  With  his  scheme  of  the  structure,  as 
seen  from  his  point  of  view  and  stated  in  the  Hib- 
bert  Journal,  I  have  extremely  little  cause  to  dis- 
agree. He  is  one  of  the  many  whom  I  referred  to  as 
having  already  emancipated  themselves  from  errors 
of  the  past  to  a  large  extent;  and  if  it  still  seems  to 
me  that  here  and  there  in  his  statement  traces  of 
crudeness  remain,  who  am  I  that  I  should  suppose 


220  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

myself  capable  of  infallibly  detecting  and  evaluating 
all  forms  of  crudity? 

I  notice  that  Professor  Masterman  admits  the 
crudity  of  ordinary  statements  of  Christian  doctrine, 
but  justifies  it  as  necessary  to  catch  the  attention  of 
ignorant  laymen,  who  are  accustomed  to  speak  in 
terms  of  "blood."  I  think  it  possible  for  the  clergy 
to  over-estimate  the  crudity  and  ignorance  of  the 
laity.  A  professional  jargon  is  apt  to  be  employed 
which  by  habit  may  sound  appropriate  on  Sundays, 
but  does  not  represent  the  mental  attitude  of  anyone 
at  other  times.  Perhaps  spirit  and  character  once  re- 
sided in  the  blood,  as  compassion  in  the  bowels,  viru- 
lence in  the  spleen,  love  in  the  heart,  and  other  emo- 
tions in  other  viscera,  but  few  persons  imagine  that 
they  live  there  now.  I  say  nothing  against  the  meth- 
ods of  the  Salvation  Army  in  its  own  sphere  of  ac- 
tivity: these  may  be  justified  by  their  results.  I* 
somewhat  doubt  whether  ordinary  Church  procedure 
is  so  justified. 

I  suggest  that  it  is  not  wise  to  assume  too  invinci- 
ble an  ignorance  on  the  part  of  habitual  worshippers. 
It  may,  for  instance,  be  of  doubtful  wisdom  to  with- 
draw documents  from  common  use  on  this  ground 
alone,  and  at  the  same  time  to  suggest  that  neverthe- 
less they  convey  essential  truth  to  clerics  instructed 
in  refinements  of  interpretation;  it  is  rather  too  sug- 
gestive of  the  attitude  of  the  priests  in  John  vii.  49. 
The  really  learned  in  theology  are  respected  by  all, 
but  they  are  infrequently  encountered.  It  would  be 
fairer  to  admit  that  some  of  the  documents  in  use 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  221 

are  themselves  imperfect  and  antiquated,  that  they 
have  been  in  many  respects  outgrown,  and  that  truth 
as  now  perceived  can  now  be  more  clearly  expressed. 
But  I  refrain  from  any  more  ecclesiastical  sugges- 
tions. 

Perhaps,  however,  I  may  unobtrusively  remark 
that  such  expressions  as  righteous  vengeance,  angry 
Father,  wrathful  Lamb,  do  not  seem  satisfactory 
forms  whereby  to  represent  what  the  Bishop  well  calls 
"a  stately  and  austere  conception  of  order."  Nor  is 
it  likely  that  "the  bright  front  and  buoyant  tread  of 
early  discipleship"  arose  from  anything  so  negative  as 
sin  overcome:  it  was  not  that  which  animated  the 
Apostles;  and  though  it  certainly  contributed  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  Magdalene,  we  should  hardly  speak 
of  "bright  front  and  buoyant  tread"  in  her  case. 

Something  more  positive  is  needed  to  explain  any 
living  and  energising  enthusiasm.  The  incidental 
treatment  of  sin  in  Chapter  X.  is,  however,  one  of  the 
points  on  which  further  explanation  is  certainly  de- 
sirable; and  all  the  supplementary  points  I  now  pro- 
pose to  deal  with  may  be  grouped  under  four  heads 
as  follows: 

1.  That  evolutionary  treatment  of  sin  is  apt  to 
minimise  unduly  the  sense  of  sinfulness. 

2.  That  it  is  misleading  to  deny  the  revealed  Wrath 
of  the  Holy  One  against  sin. 

3.  That  heresy  lurks  in  any  non-professional  treat- 
ment of  the  relation  between  the  Humanity  and  Di- 
vinity of  Christ. 


222  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

4.  That  while  controverting  the  notion  of  vicarious 
punishment,  the  true  significance  of  the  doctrine  of  a 
vicarious  Atonement  may  he  missed. 

Let  us  take  these  points  in  order. 

1.  On  page  204  ahove  the  following  sentence  oc- 
curs: 

"As  a  matter  of  fact  the  higher  man  of  to-day  is 
not  worrying  about  his  sins  at  all,  still  less  about  their 
punishment:  his  mission  if  he  is  good  for  anything, 
is  to  be  up  and  doing." 

When  writing  these  words  I  was  well  aware  that 
they  laid  me  open  to  a  retort  based  upon  John  ix.  41 ; 
nevertheless  the  statement  seems  to  me  true  "as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,"  provided  by  "higher  men"  are  under- 
stood leaders  in  the  world's  activity,  whether  they  are 
working  in  the  public  eye  or  in  the  study  or  in  the 
office,  or  anywhere  save  in  the  cloister.  Perhaps  when 
so  put  it  will  be  granted,  merely  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
if  saints  are  excluded,  and  if  no  moral  judgment  in 
favour  of  the  thesis  is  claimed  or  supposed  to  be  in- 
volved in  the  statement.  But  it  will  be  contended  that 
more  than  a  matter  of  fact  was  implied  in  that  sen- 
tence, that  there  was  an  element  of  judgment  also, 
and  that  it  was  one  of  approbation:  that  the  epithet 
"higher"  signified  that  a  man  who  was  up  and  doing, 
instead  of  introspecting  and  mourning  over  his  sins, 
was  in  the  path  of  progress,  and  was  to  be  praised 
rather  than  blamed.  Undoubtedly  I  did  mean  that 
too;  and  in  order  implicitly  to  justify  that  attitude, 
without  presumption  and  without  tedious  contention, 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  223 

I  gave  two  Biblical  references  —  one  to  Matt.  xxiv. 
46,  where  the  "servant  who  is  found  so  doing"  is  au- 
thoritatively "blessed,"  and  the  other  to  the  warning 
contained  in  Matt.  xii.  43,  that  apologue  about  the 
fate  of  a  house  which  was  left  unoccupied  after  hav- 
ing been  cleansed  and  decorated. 

It  may  surely  without  unorthodoxy  be  held  that 
there  are  two  ways  of  overcoming  sin  and  sinful  tend- 
encies :  one  the  direct  way,  of  concentrating  attention 
on  them  with  brooding  and  lamentation ;  the  other  the 
indirect  and,  as  I  think,  the  safer  and  more  efficacious 
and  altogether  more  profitable  way,  of  putting  in  so 
many  hours'  work  per  day,  and  of  excluding  weeds 
from  the  garden  by  energetic  cultivation  of  healthy 
plants. 

It  will  be  said  that  brooding  and  lamentation  is  not 
a  fit  description  of  the  exercises  of  religion,  that  a 
safeguard  of  a  higher  order  than  any  terrestrial  oc- 
cupation can  be  secured  by  conscious  emotional  peni- 
tence and  aspiration.  It  may  be  so ;  but  it  is  not  quite 
certain.  The  following  sonnet  may  or  may  not  be 
good  poetry,  but  it  would  appear  to  embody,  in  ex- 
aggerated and  feminine  form,  a  phase  of  experience 
not  unfamiliar  to  the  ordinary  human  soul : 

"A  soul  of  many  longings  entered  late 

A  chapel  like  a  jewel  blazing  bright, 

And  fell  upon  the  altar  steps.     All  night 
She  held  with  hopes  and  agonies  debate; 
With  tears  the  litanies  love-passionate 

Drenched  her;  triumphant  colours  burned  her  white; 

And,  as  the  incense  flamed  in  silver  light, 
God  sealed  her  to  His  own  novitiate. 


224,  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

"And  then,  because  her  eyes  were  charmed  with  peace, 
And  blinded  by  the  stars  new-born  within 

The  lit  sweet  lids  God's  dreams  had  lovered, — 
Nine  paces  from  that  House  of  Ecstasies 
Her  feet  were  taken  in  the  snares  of  sin; 

And,  ere  the  morning  quickened,  she  was  dead."  i 

We  must  all  of  us  have  known  what  it  is  to  be  com- 
pelled to  say,  not  always,  nor  often,  it  is  to  be  hoped, 
— it  is  as  stupid  to  exaggerate  in  these  as  in  any  other 
matters, — but  occasionally  in  the  course  of  our  lives, 
or  even  constantly  in  connexion  with  some  minor  in- 
grained habit  which  we  should  like  to  overcome, 

"Video  meliora,  proboque, 
Deteriora  sequor." 

And  this  doing  not  what  we  see  to  be  best,  but  some- 
thing inferior  which  we  do  not  really  approve  or  will 
to  do,  is  what  constitutes  one  aspect  of  sin.  Plato, 
indeed,  argues  in  the  Gorgias  that  a  wicked  man  is 
not  really  obeying  his  own  will,  that  he  is  enslaved  and 
acting  contrary  to  his  true  self;  but  whether  that  be 
so  or  not,  few  of  us  have  the  spirit  to  be  wilful  sin- 
ners. Wilful  sin  is,  as  has  been  often  said,  rebellion 
and  lawlessness,  the  misuse  and  misapplication  of  nat- 
ural powers;  it  is  akin  to  dirt,  to  disease,  to  weeds — 
i.e.  to  matter  and  cells  and  plants  out  of  place,  and 
working  harm  instead  of  good.  It  is  like  a  fire  es- 
caped from  control  and  consuming  instead  of  serving. 
Even  so  a  banked-up  lake  constructed  for  the  water- 
supply  of  a  city,  if  it  burst  its  embankment,  may 
whelm  villages  in  flood. 

1  One    of    Rachael    Annand   Taylor's   poems,    called    "The   Vanity   of 
Vows,"  quoted  in  the  Times  Literary  Supplement  for  15th  April  1904. 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  225 

Our  business  is  to  restrain  and  control,  to  direct  and 
guide,  the  forces  of  nature  and  our  own  forces.  The 
man  of  vigorous  sin,  rightly  trained  and  directed,  may 
become  the  man  of  wholesome  energy.  There  is  some 
valuable  material  being  wasted  in  our  prisons:  unre- 
claimed soil  festering  for  lack  of  plough  and  harrow. 
Good  men  of  small  and  restrained  activity  may  not 
constitute  the  most  efficient  or  the  most  approved  in- 
struments of  progress.  The  ascetic  may  endeavour 
to  avoid  all  danger,  by  never  making  a  mountain  lake, 
by  never  lighting  a  fire,  by  never  going  to  sea,  by  run- 
ning no  risks  and  living  a  poverty-stricken  existence; 
and  may  succumb  after  all :  as  soldiers  may  be  econo- 
mised in  war  till  they  fall  victims  to  some  miserably 
ignominious  disease.  We  are  called  upon  rather  for 
full  exercise  of  all  our  powers,  for  full  vigour  of  life, 
but  subject  to  discipline  and  reason  and  restraint. 
What  we  call  vices  and  virtues  are  compounded  of 
very  similar  vital  forces :  their  character  is  dependent 
on  the  direction  we  give  them.  Every  activity  can  be 
deflected  from  the  vicious  into  the  virtuous  direction; 
and  an  unsought  joy  is  the  reward. 

While  dealing  with  these  everyday  considerations, 
it  is  desirable  to  avoid  misconception  by  explicitly 
making  the  admission  that  doubtless  there  is  a  sense  in 
which  radical  imperfection  can  be  predicated  of  the 
whole  human  race  without  exception:  the  sense  in 
which  the  heavens  can  be  said  to  be  unclean  and  the 
angels  to  be  chargeable  with  folly ;  the  sense  in  which 
Job,  though  able  to  rebut  the  charge  of  hidden  wick- 


226  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

edness  brought  by  his  friends,  was  willing  abundantly 
to  admit  vileness  when  accosted  by  the  Deity. 

For  devotional  purposes  this  comparison  of  human- 
ity with  infinite  Perfection  and  infinite  attributes  gen- 
erally may  be  appropriate  and  useful,  though  no  finite 
emendation  can  be  effective  against  it ;  one  would  ex- 
pect the  feeling  aroused  by  contemplation  of  Infini- 
tude to  be  one  of  humility  and  abasement  rather  than 
one  of  contrition  and  penitence,  but  I  admit  that  saints 
have  found  it  otherwise,  and  that  their  experience  is 
conclusive. 

2.  So  much  for  practical  and  human  considerations ; 
but  there  is  another  and  more  important  matter,  on 
which  explanation  is  needed,  namely,  where  I  con- 
tend that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  need  not  be  regarded 
as  expiatory,  or  as  appeasing  the  righteous  anger  of 
a  wrathful  God,  because  (p.  211). — 

"He  had  felt  no  wrath  at  the  blind  efforts,  the  ris- 
ings and  sinkings,  of  men  struggling  in  the  mire  from 
bestial  to  human  attributes — there  was  nothing  to  ap- 
pease." 

This  has  been  attacked  as  unscriptural :  "Angry 
with  the  wicked  every  day,"  "The  wrath  of  the 
Lamb,"  and  a  multitude  of  familiar  texts,  can  easily 
be  quoted. 

Very  well,  the  epithet  "unscriptural"  has  no  coer- 
cive force  unless  the  text  appealed  to  carries  with  it  a 
conviction  of  its  own  inspiration.  There  is  plenty  of 
"anger"  in  the  Old  Testament  undoubtedly,  but  that 
is  just  where  one  would  expect  to  find  it  on  the  sur- 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  227 

vival  hypothesis;  and  I  doubt  not  the  Prophets  had 
plenty  to  make  them  angry.1 

But  it  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  waste  time  in  dis- 
cussing the  relative  authority  of  texts :  every  one  must 
be  aware  that  this  is  no  rose-water  world;  the  things 
that  have  happened  in  it,  and  the  things  that  may  yet 
happen  in  it,  are  appalling.  We  must  admit  the  force 
of  experiences  which  gave  birth  to  ejaculations  such 
as  Luke  xii.  5  and  Hebrews  x.  31,  whoever  may  have 
been  their  author,  and  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity 
of  enlarging  upon  this  subject  of  sin  and  Divine 
anger  somewhat;  it  was  quite  too  briefly  and  super- 
ficially treated  in  Chapter  X. :  indeed  it  was  not  really 
dealt  with  at  all. 

It  suited  the  priests  to  say  that  God  was  angry 
when  a  budding  nation  desired  to  have  a  king  in  order 
to  weld  it  together.  It  suited  them  to  say  that  he  was 
angry  when  prisoners  were  taken  captive  instead  of 

i  Of  the  two  texts  above  quoted  at  random  the  first  is  from  Psalm 
vii.  11,  and  the  words  "with  the  wicked"  seem  to  be  a  gratuitous  in- 
terpolation of  the  translators,  an  evident  attempt  to  make  intelligible 
the  supposed  sentence,  "God  judgeth  the  righteous,  and  God  is  angry 
every  day."  The  Prayer  Book  version — more  effective  as  usual — ren- 
ders it  thus,  "God  is  a  righteous  Judge,  strong  and  patient,  and  God 
is  provoked  every  day";  which  is  doubtless  as  true  as  any  statement  of 
the  kind  can  be. 

"The  wrath  of  the  Lamb"  occurs  only  in  Revelation,  so  far  as  I 
know;  and  there  also  is  to  be  found  that  hyperbole,  intensified  from 
Isaiah  and  from  a  common  industry  of  the  country,  about  the  vintage 
of  blood  flowing  "to  the  horse-bridles"  from  the  trodden  winepress  of 
the  wrath  of  God.  The  author's  feelings  are  evidently  overcharged. 
And  if  we  had  lived  in  times  of  really  efficient  persecution  we  too 
might  have  tried,  less  poetically,  to  assuage  our  indignant  helplessness  in 
the  same  sort  of  way. 


228  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

being  massacred;  and  again  that  he  was  wroth  wThen 
the  first  census  was  contemplated. 

So  also  in  rather  later  times  God  was  represented 
as  angry  with  idolaters,  not  ostensibly  because  some 
special  practices  of  idol-worship  may  have  been  de- 
basing, but  because  he  was  "jealous."  There  are 
plenty  of  good  reasons  against  idolatry  among  intelli- 
gent and  "chosen"  people,  but  this  is  not  one  of  them: 
nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  stock  of  a  tree  is  ever 
really  worshipped,  even  when  prostrated  to.  An  idol, 
to  ignorant  and  undeveloped  people,  is  a  symbol  of 
something  which  they  are  really  worshipping  under  a 
material  form  and  embodiment:  the  sensuous  pre- 
sentation assists  their  infantile  efforts  towards  ab- 
stract thought,  as  material  sacraments  help  people  in 
a  higher  stage  of  religious  development.  But  some 
of  these  helps  should  be  outgrown.  An  adult  mathe- 
matician hardly  needs  a  geometrical  figure,  crudely 
composed  of  fragments  of  chalk  or  smears  of  plum- 
bago or  ink,  to  help  him  to  reason;  and  if  he  uses 
such  a  diagram  he  is  aware  that  he  is  not  really  at- 
tending to  it,  but  is  reasoning  about  ideal  and  unreal- 
isable  perfections;  he  has  soared  above  the  symbol, 
and  is  away  among  the  cementing  laws  of  the  uni- 
verse. 

If  an  image  or  a  tree-trunk  or  other  symbol  helps  a 
savage  to  meditate  on  some  divine  and  intractable  con- 
ception, if  it  has  been  so  used  by  thousands  of  his  an- 
cestors, and  has  acquired  a  halo  of  reverence  through 
antiquity  and  by  the  accumulation  of  human  emotion 
lavished  upon  it, — a  missionary  should  think  twice 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  229 

before  he  is  rude  to  it,  or  abuses  it  or  pulls  it  down. 
We  do  not  rebuke  a  child  for  lavishing  a  wealth  of 
nascent  maternal  affection  on  some  grotesque  black- 
Betty  of  a  wooden  rag-covered  doll;  we  do  not  de- 
spise, we  honour,  a  regiment  content  to  be  decimated 
so  it  may  save  its  flag, — which  materially  is  almost  a 
nonentity.  And  so  if  we  send  missionaries,  we  should 
send  competent  men,  who  will  gradually  educate  by 
implanting  useful  arts  and  positive  virtues;  and  we 
should  tell  these  messengers  clearly  that  negative  and 
iconoclastic  teaching  may  be  very  cruel. 

These  things  depend  upon  grade  attained.  It  was 
very  right  for  Hebrew  prophets  to  feel  indignant  and 
to  wax  sarcastic  when  they  saw  the  degenerate  wor- 
ship of  a  moderately  enlightened  people  descending 
to  the  level  of  a  grinning  idol  or  the  stock  of  a  tree; 
and  they  may  have  rightly  felt  that  to  replace  such 
symbols  as  these  by  the  more  advanced  symbol  of  an 
angry  and  jealous  God  would  be  a  spiritual  help  of 
the  highest  kind  possible  to  a  nation  at  such  a  stage 
of  ethical  development.  In  this  manner  the  texts  con- 
cerning anger  and  jealousy  can  be  amply  accounted 
for. 

Moreover,  like  most  other  symbolism,  they  embody 
a  real  truth.  Quite  irrespective  of  texts  in  its  favour, 
we  may  be  willing  to  recognise  Divine  wrath  as  a  real 
and  terrible  thing;  though  we  must  also  be  ready  to 
admit  that  the  gloom  of  religions  antecedent  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  its  own  later  struggle  amid  nascent  civili- 
sation, overshadowed  the  Gospel  message  unduly; 
and  fear  was  a  powerful  weapon  in  the  hands  of 


230  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

priests,  which  they  did  not  fail  to  employ.  But  I  feel 
no  contradiction  between  all  this  and  the  above  quota- 
tion from  page  211.  So  far  as  I  can  judge,  it  is 
not  likely  that  a  Deity  operating  through  a  process 
of  evolution  can  feel  wrath  at  the  blind  efforts  of  his 
creatures  struggling  upward  in  the  mire.  I  judge 
rather  that  the  human  impulse  to  lend  them  a  pitiful 
and  helpful  hand  can  with  difficulty  be  restrained,  can 
indeed  only  be  restrained  by  lofty  and  far-seeing  Wis- 
dom, and  by  perception  of  "the  far-off  interest  of 
tears." 

Nevertheless,  I  am  sure  that  what  may  without  ir- 
reverence be  humanly  spoken  of  as  fierce  Wrath 
against  sin,  and  even  against  a  certain  class  of  sinner, 
is  a  Divine  attribute.  But,  then,  what  do  we  mean  by 
"sin"  in  this  connection?  It  is  a  term  which,  in  a  dif- 
ferent sense  from  charity,  likewise  covers  a  multitude. 
I  do  not  wish  to  enter  upon  a  dissertation  on  the  na- 
ture of  sin  in  general  from  the  scientific  standpoint. 
For  our  present  purpose  we  can  regard  the  matter 
quite  simply,  as  something  of  which  we  have  all  plenty 
of  experience ;  but  I  maintain  that  when  wTe  are  speak- 
ing of  the  sin  against  which  God's  anger  blazes,  we 
do  not  mean  the  sins  of  failure,  the  burden  of  remorse, 
the  acts  which  cause  contrition  and  penitence  on  the 
part  of  a  saint  or  a  child  or  a  labouring  man — a 
labouring  man  or  woman  of  any  class ;  we  mean  some- 
thing quite  other  than  that.  And  I  assume  that 
therein  we  are  consistent  with  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church. 

If  not  a  wicked  absurdity,  it  is  surely  a  libel  to  as- 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  231 

sert  that  God  is  angry  with  ordinary  human  failings, 
and  with  the  dismal  lapses  from  virtue  of  poor  out- 
casts of  civilisation.  We  are  familiar,  for  instance, 
with  the  fierce  wrath  of  Christ, — his  language  was 
denunciatory  in  the  extreme :  but  against  what  sort  of 
people?  It  was  not  the  publicans  and  the  harlots 
whom  he  stigmatised  as  a  generation  of  vipers,  or 
whom  he  threatened  with  the  damnation  of  hell; 
rather  it  was  some  specimens  of  the  unco'  guid  of  that 
day — people  perfectly  satisfied  with  themselves,  peo- 
ple ready  to  forbid  deeds  of  healing  on  the  Sabbath, 
and  eager  to  stifle  the  holiest  if  they  had  the  chance  * 
— it  was  with  these  that  he  was  angry,  not  with  any- 
one who  could  be  described  as  helplessly  and  ineffi- 
ciently struggling  out  of  the  mire  towards  better 
things. 

There  were  sins  of  which  he  was  genuinely 
ashamed,  so  that  he  stooped  and  wrote  upon  the 
ground  when  they  were  suddenly  obtruded  upon  his 
notice  by  coarse  experimenters:  shame  so  acute  that 
even  those  ruffians  had  the  grace  subsequently  to  slink 
away;  but  it  was  stoning  of  the  Prophets,  wilful 
blindness  to  the  Highest,  it  was  blasphemy  against 
the  Holy  Ghost,  that  excited  his  fiercest  reprobation. 

Just  as  it  is  impossible  for  the  human  race  at  any 
given  time  to  select  that  one  of  their  number  who  will 
be  best  remembered  a  thousand  years  hence,  so  it  is 
difficult  for  us  to  judge  what  class  of  people  are  rend- 
ering themselves  most  liable  to  high  Displeasure  now. 

i  Mark  iii.  5,  6,  29. 


232  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

I  suppose  that  the  respectable  and  religious  world  of 
Judeea  was  genuinely  astonished,  and  not  a  little  scan- 
dalised, at  its  vigorous  denunciation  by  an  itinerant 
Preacher,  long  ago;  and  it  is  just  possible  that  to-day 
those  self-satisfied  people  who  shut  their  eyes  to  truth, 
and  propagate  error,  are  at  least  as  harmful  to  the 
general  advance  as  are  some  individuals  whom  Society 
for  its  own  safety  finds  it  necessary  to  keep  in  seclu- 
sion.1 

A  Church  which,  let  us  say,  excommunicates  Tol- 
stoi may  possibly  be  composed  of  pious  individuals 
whom  it  does  not  become  us  to  judge,  but  I  can  con- 
ceive that  in  its  corporate  capacity  any  Church  which 
opposes  reform,  which  persistently  takes  the  wrong 
side,  which  sustains  abuses  such  as  the  droits  de  seig- 
neur in  the  past,  and  perhaps  other  only  less  flagrant 
abuses  to-day,  may  be  regarded  as  deserving  of  vig- 
orous Denunciation;  and  if  such  an  institution,  in 
some  neighbouring  country  or  elsewhere,  should  hap- 
pen to  fall  upon  evil  days,  it  may  find  itself  unsuc- 
cessful in  its  endeavour  to  fasten  the  blame  upon  any- 
thing but  itself. 

There  are  many  grades  of  sin;  and  anyone  may 
know  the  kind  of  sin  which  excites  the  anger  of  God, 
by  bethinking  him  of  the  kind  which  arouses  his  own 

i  And,  incidentally,  may  it  not  be  also  possible  that  the  omission  on 
the  part  of  Society  to  make  any  serious  and  satisfactory  effort  to  train 
and  humanise  and  redeem  those  whom  it  thus  takes  under  its  providential 
control  (not  to  mention  their  subjection  to  the  inhuman  device  of  solitary 
confinement)  is  liable  to  be  regarded  in  High  Quarters  as  deserving  of 
reprobation  just  as  severe  as  that  accorded  to  any  more  actively  com- 
mitted crime? 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  233 

best  and  most  righteous  anger.  I  can  imagine  that 
the  infernal  proceedings  of  Nero  and  of  the  Holy 
Inquisition  were  repugnant  and  nauseating  to  the 
Universe  to  a  degree  which  was  almost  unbearable. 
The  fierce  indignation  that  would  blaze  out  if  one 
were  maliciously  to  torture  a  child  or  an  animal  in  view 
of  an  ordinary  man  or  woman,  would  surely  be  a 
spark  of  the  Divine  wrath ;  and  we  have  been  told  that 
a  millstone  round  the  neck  of  a  child-abuser  is  too 
light  a  penalty. 

Sins  of  this  kind  are  a  boil,  an  abscess,  on  the  Uni- 
verse :  they  must  be  attacked  and  cured  by  human  co- 
operators,  they  are  hardly  tractable  otherwise; 1  just 
as  in  the  complex  aggregate  of  cells  we  call  our  body 
the  dominant  intelligence  cannot  unaided  cope  with 
its  own  disease,  but  must  depend  on  the  labours  of  its 
micro-organisms,  the  phagocytes,  which  swarm  to  any 
poisoned  plague  spot,  and  there  actively  and  painfully 
struggle  with  and  inflame  and  attack  the  evil,  till  one 
side  or  other  is  overcome:  so  it  is  with  man  as  an 
active  ingredient  in  the  universe.  We  are  the  white 
corpuscles  of  the  cosmos:  and  like  the  corpuscles  we 
are  an  essential  ingredient  of  the  system,  our  full  po- 
tentiality being  latent  until  stimulated  into  activity 
by  disease. 

If  it  is  possible  for  a  man  at  times  to  feel  a  sort  of 
hatred  and  anger  against  his  own  weaker  and  worser 
self,  so  I  can  imagine  a  God  feeling  what  may  be 
imperfectly  spoken  of  as  disgust  and  wrath  at  de- 

i  Psalm  cxv.  16. 


2S4  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

fects  which  still  exist  in  his  Universe — in  Himself, 
dare  we  say? — defects  for  which  in  a  manner  he  is  in 
some  sort  responsible,  defects  which  he  has  either 
caused,  or  for  ultimate  reasons  permitted,  or  has  not 
yet,  in  the  present  stage  of  evolution,  been  able  to 
cure  consistently  with  full  education  and  adequate 
scope  for  free  development  of  personality;  defects 
which  surely  his  conscious  creatures  wTill  assist  him  to 
remove,  now  that  the  bare  possibility  of  the  existence 
of  these  ferocious  evils  has  done  its  salutary  and  ulti- 
mately beneficent  wrork. 

In  this  sense,  therefore,  it  would  be  inappropriate 
to  deny  any  amount  of  wrath  against  sin  and  even 
against  the  blatant  sinner — the  class  of  people  who 
can  only  be  impressed  by  the  falling  of  a  stone  which 
shall  grind  them  to  powder.  But  it  is  not  for  people 
in  the  vicious  state  that  the  consolations  of  religion 
are  available,  they  are  not  the  bruised  reed  whom  he 
wTill  not  break :  and  there  is  no  sense  in  perplexing  or- 
dinary struggling,  kindly,  wreak,  unhappy  humanity, 
with  alleged  fearful  penalties  attaching  to  even 
minor  disobedience:  penalties  which  must  be  exacted 
somehow,  no  matter  much  from  whom;  nor  need  we 
spoil  people's  conception  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
with  distorted  legends,  representing  him  as  a  Roman 
Father  who  will  not  scruple  to  visit  their  sins  and 
shortcomings  upon  the  innocent  body  of  his  own  Son, 
since  that  is  the  only  condition  on  which  his  wrath 
may  be  turned  away  and  his  hand  not  stretched  out 
stiU. 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  235 

3.  There  is  one  sentence  in  my  last  chapter  wherein 
I  appear  to  suggest  that  Christ's  body  was  human, 
his  spirit  divine;  thus  making  a  possibly  untenable 
though  simple  distinction  between  the  vehicle  and  the 
manifestation,  and  trespassing  on  a  theological  terri- 
tory which  is  full  of  heretical  pit-falls. 

It  would  have  been  better  to  avoid  even  the  appear- 
ance of  entering  on  so  large  a  question  as  the  nature 
of  Christ  by  a  mere  side-door.  My  object  at  the  mo- 
ment was  not  anything  so  ambitious,  but  merely  to 
indicate  what  would  be  the  effect  on  mankind  of  the 
arrival  of  a  personage,  with  a  human  and  therefore 
accessible  and  mortal  body,  animated  by  a  spirit  of 
divine  perfection.  I  wished  to  urge  that  among  the 
results  of  the  thorough  incarnation  of  a  truly  Divine 
Spirit  would  be  the  beginnings  of  a  real  atonement 
between  man  and  God ;  and  that  the  influence  exerted 
would  be  exerted  wholly  on  man.  Farther  than  that 
I  did  not  then  intend  to  go;  nor  do  I  propose  to  go 
much  farther  now,  though  the  temptation  is  consider- 
able. It  is  easy  to  recognise  that  the  subjects  of  the 
Incarnation  and  the  Resurrection  are  profoundly  dif- 
ficult, and  yet  to  feel  impelled  to  express  surprise  at 
the  language  which  eminent  theologians  sometimes 
permit  themselves  to  employ.  I  take  the  following 
astounding  sentence  from  Canon  Moberly's  article  in 
Lux  Mundi: 

P.  236.  "No  one  will  now  dispute  that  Jesus  died 
upon  the  Cross.  If  He  did  not  on  the  third  day  rise 
again  from  that  death  to  life — cadit  qucestio — all 
Christian  dogma,  all  Christian  faith,  is  at  an  end." 


236  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

I  suppose  it  is  intended  as  a  paraphrase  of  St„ 
Paul's  "If  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching 
vain  and  your  faith  is  also  vain."  But  the  two  state- 
ments are  perfectly  different.  If  Christ  be  not  risen 
in  some  sense  or  other,  if  his  death  was  the  end  of  him, 
according  to  the  current  but  perhaps  not  quite  cor- 
rect conception  of  the  death  of  a  dog,  then  indeed  is 
the  prospect  blank. 

But  "rise  again  from  death  to  life  on  the  third  day" 
must  mean  far  more  than  persistent  existence  and  in- 
fluence :  it  seems  to  mean  resuscitation,  after  the  man- 
ner of  Lazarus.  Indeed,  the  fourth  article  of  the 
Church  definitely  asserts  that  it  does  mean  that  and 
more.  But  an  attempt  to  link  the  whole  of  Christian 
faith  inextricably  with  an  anatomical  statement  about 
flesh  and  bones,  as  in  Article  4  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  is  rash. 

Again : 

P.  237.  "No  one  to-day  disputes  that  He  was 
truly  man.  Is  it  true  that  He  was  very  God?  It  is 
either  true  or  false.  As  to  the  fact  there  are  only  the 
two  alternatives.  And  between  the  two  the  gulf  is 
impassable.  If  it  is  not  false  it  is  true.  If  it  is  not 
absolutely  true  it  is  absolutely  false." 

Do  theologians  always  know  what  they  mean  when 
they  glibly  use,  in  a  serious  and  solemn  sense,  the 
awful  term  God?  Have  they  any  notion  of  the  Uni- 
verse at  all?  Are  they  still  limited  to  tribal  or  plane- 
tary conceptions  of  Deity?  They  talk,  or  used  to 
talk,  about  "dispensations."  We  ourselves,  as  a  na- 
tion, give  dispensations  to  children  or  savages  other 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  237 

than  we  should  give  to  developed  people ;  a  planetary 
dispensation  is  one  thing,  a  planetary  God  another. 
These  attempted  identifications  of  the  Messiah  with 
the  Most  High,  verge  on  the  blasphemous.  When 
Peter  was  blessed  for  a  burst  of  bold  and  enthusiastic 
affirmation  and  adequate  recognition  of  Christ's  di- 
vine nature,  he  said  no  such  thing  as  that.  What  he 
said  was,  "Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 
God." 

As  to  affirming  that  Christ  is  either  God  or  is  not 
God  and  that  there  is  nothing  more  to  be  said:  there 
are  few  complex  propositions  of  which  so  simple  a 
positive  or  negative  affirmation  can  be  made.  For 
instance,  it  is  almost  proverbially  difficult  to  reply  to 
the  childish  question  whether  a  given  historical  char- 
acter was  "good"  or  was  not  good. 

The  word  God  must  have  an  infinite  diversity  of 
meaning,  and  two  uses  of  the  term  are  prominent. 
One  connotes  vaguely  the  Absolute  Sustainer  and 
Comprehender  of  all  existence:  the  other  signifies 
such  detailed  conception  of  Godhead  as  the  human 
race  has  been  able  to  frame.  This  latter  has  been 
helped  on  mightily  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus,  among 
those  who  can  accept  it, — the  revelation  of  genuinely 
human  faculties  and  feelings,  and  even  something  of 
the  unconscious  simplicity,  of  childhood,1  in  the  Di- 
vine Being, — and  the  further  revelation,  so  enthusias- 
tically glimpsed  by  the  youthful  David  near  the  end 
of  Browning's  poem  "Saul,"  the  perception  that  Di- 

i  Luke  ix.  48. 


238  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

vine  as  well  as  human  love  may  be  and  actually  is 
strong  enough  to  submit  to  sacrifice  and  genuine  suf- 
fering on  behalf  of  the  beloved. 

This  revelation  and  perception  may  to  some  have 
become  so  keen  and  piercing  that  to  no  other  aspect  of 
Godhead  can  they  pay  attention.  These  are  they 
who  say  that  Christ  was  very  God  in  the  absolute 
sense;  and  subjectively  they  may  be  right.  It  is  a 
statement,  not  of  what  they  conceive  of  Christ,  but  of 
what  they  mean  by  God.  One  cannot  define  or  ex- 
plain the  known  in  terms  of  the  unknown. 

4.  Lastly  we  come  to  the  doctrine  of  a  vicarious 
Atonement,  and  in  what  sense  that  can  be  considered 
to  embody  a  genuine  truth.  The  late  Bishop  of 
Southampton,  Dr.  Arthur  Lyttelton,  in  his  article  on 
the  Atonement  in  JLuoo  Mundi  (pp.  282,  283),  says 
that — 

"It  was  from  the  Law  that  the  Jews  derived  their 
religious  language;  their  conceptions  of  sacrifice,  of 
atonement,  of  the  effects  of  sin,  were  moulded  by  the 
influence  of  the  Mosaic  ceremonies.  .  .  .  The  sacri- 
ficial ceremonies  and  language  of  the  Law  throw  light 
upon  the  apostolic  conception  of  the  Sacrifice,  the 
Atonement  of  Christ." 

With  this  historical  estimate  I  entirely  agree.  The 
ceremony  of  the  Scapegoat,  and  indeed  the  whole  so- 
called  Mosaic  system,  are  clearly  responsible  for  a 
great  deal  of  the  doctrine  which  penetrated  into  the 
New  Testament,  and  has  survived  even  to  the  present 
day. 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  239 

But  then  it  will  be  found  that  this  same  Article  is 
full  of  the  word  "propitiation": — a  word  which  em- 
bodies compactly  what  I  regard  as  an  error  or  a 
crudity,  and  serves  to  focus  the  issue.  The  basis  of 
his  contention  throughout  is  given  succinctly  in  the 
following  passage  (p.  282)  : 

"Examination  of  the  sacrificial  system  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  necessary  in  a  discussion  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Atonement,  for  several  reasons. 

"The  institutions  of  the  Law  were,  in  the  first 
place,  ordained  by  God,  and  therefore  intended  to  re- 
veal in  some  degree  His  purposes,  His  mind  towards 
man." 

That  is  where  I  join  issue.  I  would  rather  go  to 
the  opposite  extreme  and  say  that  the  Gospel  was  an 
attempt  to  break  away  from  sacrificial  and  priestly 
tradition;  that  the  "not  destroy  but  fulfil"  referred 
to  the  major  denunciations  and  other  accumulations 
of  race-experience,  which  were  on  right  lines  as  far 
as  they  went,  not  to  the  minor  institutions  and  super- 
stitions which  had  become  an  incubus  destructive  of 
living  personal  religion.  We  may  not  all  in  every 
respect  be  equally  enamoured  of  the  parable  of  the 
Prodigal  Son — I  myself  am  conscious  of  a  subter- 
ranean sympathy  with  the  sentiments  expressed  by 
his  elder  brother — but  the  whole  story  is  very  human, 
very  familiar,  and  full  of  manifest  inspiration;  and 
without  wishing  to  press  it  unduly,  we  must  admit  that 
any  feeling  of  wrath  against  the  offender,  or  even 
against  the  offence,  is  rather  conspicuously  absent 
from  its  scheme.     The  sense  of  guilt  is  there,  in  pro- 


240  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

nounced  form,  but  as  a  one-sided  feeling;  and  its 
paternal  counterpart  seems  not  to  have  been  removed 
by  expiatory  sacrifice  or  by  propitiation  of  any  kind, 
but  simply  to  be  non-existent.  There  is  very  little 
residue  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation  in  that  story. 

So  markedly  has  this  been  felt  indeed  by  some 
preachers  that,  in  dismay  at  finding  themselves 
adrift  from  their  familiar  moorings,  a  few  have 
actually  seized  upon  the  fatted  calf  and  tried  to 
construct  some  kind  of  propitiatory  sacrifice  out  of 
that. 

But  observe  that  I  have  never  said  a  word  against 
vicarious  suffering:  I  have  contended  against  the 
notion  of  vicarious  'punishment — a  very  different 
idea.  But  I  cannot  agree  with  everything  that  is  said 
even  about  vicarous  suffering — real  though  it  admit- 
tedly is.  For  instance,  the  Bishop  of  Southwark 
urges  that  the  vicarious  suffering  of  the  Atonement 
did  somehow  redress,  cancel,  redeem,  propitiate, — 
these  words  are  used  in  a  private  letter,  while  their 
substance  appears  in  the  article  above  referred  to, — 
and  he  appears  to  insist  that  the  idea  of  a  Father  who 
is  necessarily  hard  upon  us  because  himself  so  right- 
eous, is  a  part  of  the  orthodox  view.  With  great  de- 
ference I  cannot  admit  the  appropriateness  of  the 
above  verbs  to  modern  insight:  they  seem  to  me  sat- 
urated with  the  atmosphere  of  pagan  survival  and  of 
ante-Isaiah  Jewish  traditions.  No  one  supposes  them 
to  apply  to  vicious  and  persistent  sins;  but  if  they 
only  apply  to  negligences  and  ignorances  for  which 
we  are  heartily  sorry  and  earnestly  repent,  they  are 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  241 

unnecessary,  except  in  a  subjective  and  comforting 
sense. 

But  then  this  is  a  real  sense:  there  must  be  some 
meaning  in  the  perennial  experience  of  relief  and 
renovation  at  the  Cross.  Was  it  not  there  that  Chris- 
tian's burden  fell, — type  of  many  thousands  of  de- 
vout persons?  Is  there  no  regenerating  agency  at 
work  in  justification  of  this  mass  of  real  human  ex- 
perience? Far  be  it  from  me  to  doubt  it;  and  it  be- 
hoves me,  who  have  presumed  to  emphasise  one  aspect, 
to  emphasise  the  other  also,  in  order  to  make  a  picture 
not  too  obviously  incomplete  and  one-sided. 

I  am  now  going  to  use  the  word  "sin"  in  its  theo- 
logical and,  so  to  speak,  "official"  sense, — the  sense  of 
imperfection,  disunion,  lack  of  harmony,  the  struggle 
among  the  members  that  St.  Paul  for  all  time  ex- 
pressed; there  is  usually  associated  with  it  a  sense  of 
impotence,  a  recognition  of  the  impossibility  of 
achieving  peace  and  unity  in  one's  own  person,  a  feel- 
ing that  aid  must  be  forthcoming  from  a  higher 
source.  It  is  this  feeling  which  enables  the  spectacle 
of  any  noble  self-sacrificing  human  action  to  have  an 
elevating  effect,  it  is  this  which  gropes  after  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  highest  in  human  nature,  it  is  a  feeling 
which  for  large  tracts  of  this  planet  has  found  its 
highest  stimulus  and  completest  satisfaction  in  the 
life  and  death  of  Christ.  All  religions  worthy  of  the 
name  are  based  upon  some  heroic  and  self-sacrificing 
life,  upon  some  man  with  clearer  vision  than  his  fel- 
lows, one  who  is  in  closer  touch  and  sympathy  with 
the  Divine. 


242  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

And  not  insight  and  heroism  alone :  Paul  was  able 
to  bear  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time  with  hero- 
ism, but  Paul  was  not  crucified  for  us,  nor  are  we  bap- 
tised in  the  name  of  Paul.  No,  there  is  evidently 
something  unique  about  the  majesty  of  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth which  raises  him  above  the  rank  of  man;  and 
the  willingness  of  such  a  Being  to  share  our  nature, 
to  live  the  life  of  a  peasant,  and  to  face  the  horrible 
certainty  of  execution  by  torture,  in  order  personally 
to  help  those  whom  he  was  pleased  to  call  his  brethren, 
is  a  race-asset  which,  however  masked  and  overlaid 
with  foreign  growths,  yet  gleams  through  every  cov- 
ering and  suffuses  the  details  of  common  life  with 
fragrance. 

This  conspicuously  has  been  a  redeeming,  or  rather 
a  regenerating  agency — I  know  nothing  of  "cancel- 
ling," "redressing,"  or  "propitiating":  those  words  I 
repudiate;  but  it  has  regenerated, — for  by  filling  the 
soul  with  love  and  adoration  and  fellow-feeling  for 
the  Highest,  the  old  cravings  have  often  been  almost 
hypnotically  rendered  distasteful  and  repellent,  the 
bondage  of  sin  has  been  loosened  from  many  a  spirit, 
the  lower  entangled  self  has  been  helped  from  the 
slough  of  despond  and  raised  to  the  shores  of  a  larger 
hope,  whence  it  can  gradually  attain  to  harmony  and 
peace. 

There  are  other  parts  of  the  Hon.  Arthur  Lyttel- 
ton's  beautiful  essay  on  the  Atonement  in  Lux  Mundi 
to  which  I  should  like  to  refer.  I  find  myself  in 
agreement  with  the  initial  three  or  four  pages  and 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  243 

with  the  concluding  three  or  four  pages  almost  en- 
tirely. By  dint  of  working  through  a  maze  of  rather 
intractable  material,  which  he  treats  as  well  as  it  is 
possible  for  it  to  be  treated,  he  arrives  at  what  I  con- 
ceive to  be  the  legitimate  conclusion.  He  discards 
the  infinite-punishment  doctrine  completely,  he 
brushes  lightly  aside  M'Leod  Campbell's  infinite-re- 
pentance modification  of  it,  and  he  attempts  to  justify 
the  view  of  a  perfect  sacrifice. 

So  far  as  he  associates  this  with  vicarious  penalty 
and  emphasises  the  'propitiatory  aspect  of  the  Atone- 
ment, he  goes,  as  I  consider,  wrong;  he  even  argues 
that  in  his  agony  and  death  the  Son  must  have  been 
engaged  in  propitiating  not  only  his  Father's  wrath 
but  his  own  also;  that  he  was,  in  fact,  taking  upon 
himself,  and  so  both  retrospectively  and  prospectively 
warding  off  from  others,  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb. 
This  truly  is  a  logical  outcome  of  the  orthodox  doc- 
trine, but  it  should  serve  as  one  of  the  modes  of  dis- 
crediting some  of  the  crudity  in  that  doctrine  and  re- 
ducing it  to  a  kind  of  absurdity. 

But  when  Dr.  Lyttelton  arrives  at  page  310  he  has 
emerged  from  Mosaic  medievalism  into  an  atmos- 
phere of  truth:  it  is  true  that  Christ  bore  his  suffer- 
ings, as  we  should  learn  to  bear  ours,  victoriously  and 
in  unbroken  union  with  God.  He  showed  that  the 
highest  and  the  best  might  have  to  suffer,  so  long  as 
the  world  was  imperfect. 

In  an  admirable  essay  on  "Pain"  by  J.  R.  Ming- 
worth  in  Lux  Mundi  this  part  of  the  matter  is  put 
with  great  clearness: 


244  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

"Once  for  all  the  sinless  suffering  of  the  Cross  has 
parted  sin  from  suffering  with  a  clearness  of  distinc- 
tion never  before  achieved.  .  .  .  The  sight  of  perfect 
sinlessness  combined  with  perfect  suffering  has 
cleared  our  view  for  ever.  ...  Sin  indeed  always 
brings  suffering  in  its  train,  but  the  suffering  we  now 
see  to  be  of  the  nature  of  its  antidote.  .  .  .  But  while 
sin  involves  suffering,  suffering  does  not  involve  sin. 
.  .  .  We  suffer  because  we  sin,  but  we  also  sin  because 
we  decline  to  suffer.  .  .  .  The  pleasures  of  each  gen- 
eration evaporate  in  air;  it  is  their  pains  that  increase 
the  spiritual  momentum  of  the  world."  And  so  on 
(p.  123  to  the  end). 

The  problem  which  had  puzzled  the  ages,  the  prob- 
lem of  the  book  of  Job,  of  the  tower  of  Siloam,  was 
practically  solved. 

And  Christ  showed  how  the  sting  might  be  taken 
out  of  all  suffering  by  meeting  it  with  a  spirit  of  un- 
daunted faith.  The  power  of  sin  lay  in  the  presence 
of  an  evil  and  rebellious  disposition.  Rid  of  that,  and 
though  pains  and  sorrows  would  come  as  before,  they 
could  be  faced  in  a  spirit,  not  of  submission  only,  but 
of  undying  love  and  hope  and  almost  joy. 

So  the  cognate  or  complementary  problem  of  the 
Greek  Dramatists  also — the  problem  which  looms 
large  in  the  tragedies  of  Euripides  in  especial — the 
dread  that  man  is  the  sport  and  plaything  of  omnipo- 
tence— the  fear,  the  paralysing  fear,  of  caprice  or 
even  wickedness  on  the  part  of  higher  powers — the 
dismal  uncertainty  whether  pain  is  not  sometimes 
mere  gratuitous  torture,  the  outcome  of  divine  jeal- 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  245 

ousy  or  malevolence  or  anger  or  some  other  pagan 
attribute:  all  this  was  somehow  removed  from  man- 
kind by  the  victory  of  Christ,  and  except  in  a  few 
individual  cases  has  never  very  seriously  troubled  it 
since. 

Not  only  was  indifference  to  suffering  and  tem- 
poral loss  the  outcome  of  it,  but  there  was  superadded 
a  certain  glory  in  suffering,  in  emulation  of  so  noble 
an  example:  to  fill  up,  as  was  hyperbolically  said, 
what  was  behind;  this  feeling  infused  such  vitality 
into  the  Apostles  and  the  early  Church  as  to  carry 
them  victoriously  through  a  terrible  period  of  danger 
and  untold  misery.  It  made  them  staunch;  men  and 
emperors  found  that  they  simply  could  not  effectively 
hurt  those  whom  this  faith  had  seized.  And  in  less 
troublous  times  the  element  of  suffering  and  poverty 
was  still  felt  to  be  so  vital  that  it  was  often  self-in- 
flicted in  order  to  secure  a  deeper  joy.  So  is  it  always 
in  ages  of  burning  faith;  comfort  and  luxury  and 
this  present  life,  with  all  that  they  rightly  contain  of 
happiness,  are  cast  aside  as  almost  worthless  in  ex- 
change for  a  spiritual  exaltation. 

But  it  will  be  said  that  this  violent  enthusiasm  and 
contempt  for  mere  individual  temporal  well-being  is 
not  Christian  alone,  that  it  is  common  to  all  religions. 
Granted.  I  will  not  contend  that  Christ  was  the  only 
channel  of  this  influence,  though  he  has  been  the  chan- 
nel for  most  of  us;  nor  do  Buddhism,  Brahminism, 
Mohammedanism,  Confucianism,  exhaust  the  cate- 
gory of  religions  more  or  less  efficient  in  this  particu- 
lar.   In  islands  of  strange  worship,  amid  savages  of 


246  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

unclean  life,  the  same  enthusiasm  for  the  spiritual  as 
dominating  the  material  is  felt ;  for  it  is  a  part  of  the 
truth  of  God,  and  is  limited  to  no  age  or  creed.  And 
in  countries  which  by  superficial  outsiders  are  said 
to  have  no  religious  faith  it  is  to  be  found.  The  Jap- 
anese soldier  throws  away  his  individual  life  by  the 
thousand,  in  order  that  his  nation  may  take  a  noble 
place  in  the  world  and  begin  its  destined  work  of 
civilising  Asia;  yet  when  he  is  dead  what  is  Asia  or 
his  country  to  him?  He  must  be  dominated  by  a  liv- 
ing faith,  in  perhaps  he  knows  not  what.  He  may 
not  be  able  to  express  it,  but  his  faith  may  be  none  the 
less  efficient  for  lacking  the  outward  precision  of  an 
Athanasian  formula. 

But  whatever  be  the  case  with  other  religions,  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ  has  convinced  the  Western  world 
of  sin  to  a  unique  degree,  of  its  reality  and  dire  con- 
sequence, of  its  unreasonableness,  its  aspect  as  a  dis- 
ease which  must  be  cured — with  the  knife  if  need  be, 
but  cured;  we  have  learnt  that  it  is  foreign  to  the 
universe,  it  is  not  the  will  of  God,  it  is  not  due  to  his 
caprice,  or  amusement,  or  dictation,  or  predestination, 
or  pagan  example;  it  is  something  which  gives  even 
Him  pain  and  suffering;  it  is  something  to  be  rid  of, 
and  there  is  no  peace  or  joy  to  be  had  until  unity  of 
will  is  secured  and  past  rebellions  are  forgiven.  The 
sin  of  the  creature  involves  suffering  in  the  Creator: 
the  wrhole  of  existence  is  so  bound  together  that  dis- 
ease in  one  part  means  pain  throughout.  This  is  the 
element  of  truth  in  the  vicariousness  of  suffering, 


SIN,  SUFFERING  AND  WRATH  247 

and  in  extension  of  suffering  to  the  Highest;  but  it 
is  not  vicariously  penal,  nor  is  it  propitiatory. 

The  orthodox  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  implicitly 
maintains  that  God  cannot  forgive  sin,  unless  and 
until  He  has  exacted  an  adequate  penalty  somewhere. 
This  does  embody  a  kind  of  truth,  for  an  eddy  of 
conduct,  good  or  ill,  can  only  disappear  by  expending 
its  energy  in  producing  some  definite  effect.  In  one 
sense,  therefore,  a  penalty  must  follow  every  inhar- 
monious action:  a  penalty  not  falling  on  the  wrong- 
doer alone,  but,  involving  the  innocent  likewise,  and 
bringing  needless  pain  into  existence.  Perception  of 
this  may  be  part  of  the  punishment,  for  there  can 
hardly  be  a  fiercer  feeling  than  remorse ;  but  the  sting 
will  not  be  fully  felt  till  the  spirit  has  become  broken 
and  contrite  and  open  to  the  healing  influences  of 
forgiveness.  There  is  no  agony  like  that  of  returning 
animation.  Forgiveness  removes  no  penalty:  it  may 
even  increase  pain,  though  only  that  of  a  regenera- 
tive kind;  it  leaves  material  consequences  unaltered, 
but  it  may  achieve  spiritual  reform. 

Divine  forgiveness  is  undoubtedly  mysterious,  but 
it  must  be  real,  for  we  are  conscious  that  we  can  for- 
give each  other.  It  should  be  an  axiom  that  what- 
ever man  can  do,  God  a  fortiori  can  do  also ;  meaning 
by  "man"  not  merely  any  poor  individual  man,  but 
the  whole  highest  ethos  of  the  race,  including  saints, 
apostles,  prophets,  everybody, — and  including  Christ 
himself.  How  are  we  taught  to  ask  for  forgiveness 
of  sins?    As  we  forgive  others.    This  does  not  solely 


248  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

mean,  as  it  is  usually  taken  to  mean,  because  we  for- 
give others,  nor  in  so  far  as,  nor  on  condition  that  we 
forgive  our  fellows,  but  it  means  after  the  same 
fashion  as  we  forgive  or  should  forgive  them.  And 
the  reason  given  is  a  luminous  one;  it  has  nothing  to 
do  with  propitiation,  it  makes  no  reference  to  sacrifice 
or  vicarious  penalty,  nor  to  the  merits  of  any  media- 
tor; no,  the  reason  given  is  a  noble  and  sufficient  one, 
and  it  is  simply  this:  "For  Thine  is  the  Kingdom, 
and  the  Power,  and  the  Glorv,  for  ever."  What 
more  can  we  add  but  the  word  "Amen"? 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

MEN  of  science  who  make  a  life-study  of  the  ma- 
terial world  alone,  and  habitually  close  their 
minds  to  the  influences  of  poetry  and  of  emotional 
and  religious  and  even  philosophical  literature  gen- 
erally, are  apt  to  grow  into  the  belief  that  the  material 
aspect  of  the  universe  is  the  only  aspect  which  mat- 
ters,— sometimes  going  so  far  as  to  hold  that  it  is  the 
only  aspect  which  is  truly  real. 

Theologians  and  mystics  and  even  men  of  letters, 
are  liable  to  err  in  a  similar  though  complementary 
manner,  and  by  exclusive  attention  to  one  region  of 
human  nature  become  so  imbued  with  its  supreme 
importance  that  they  ignore  and  despise  the  universe 
of  matter,  force,  and  energy;  regarding  with  com- 
placence not  only  their  own  ignorance,  but  the  ignor- 
ance also  of  teachers  of  youth. 

This  distinction  between  schools  of  thought  on 
the  intellectual  plane  is  fairly  obvious;  and  a  similar 
distinction  holds  also  in  the  religious  sphere. 

There  are  those,  on  the  one  hand,  who  hold  that 
"God"  and  "spiritual  beings"  and  "guidance"  and 
"intelligent  control"  are  words  of  only  superstitious 
meaning — that  the  world,  as  revealed  by  our  senses, 
is  the  sole  reality,  our  bodily  life  our  true  and  only 

249 


250  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

existence,  and  the  world  of  poetry  and  religion  but  a 
dream. 

There  are  those,  on  the  other  hand,  who  so  im- 
merse themselves  in  spiritual  contemplation  that  the 
things  of  sense  shrink  into  nothingness,  and  our  pres- 
ent life,  with  all  that  pertains  to  bodily  and  terrestrial 
activity,  becomes  insignificant,  or  even  acquires  a  neg- 
ative value,  since  material  things  are  a  snare  and  a 
temptation,  tending  to  divert  our  feet  from  the  true 
path,  and  apt  to  fill  our  souls  with  clogging  and 
vicious  trifles. 

The  extreme  in  the  one  case  has  been  called  roughly 
materialism  or  naturalism  or  positivism;  its  religion 
is  a  practical  religion  of  human  nature  and  earthly 
service,  its  god  a  glorified  humanity,  and  its  immor- 
tality merely  racial,  being  one  of  sentiment  and  mem- 
ory. 

The  extreme  in  the  other  case  has  been  called  spirit- 
ualism or  mysticism  or  asceticism  or  puritanism,  for 
it  has  many  phases;  its  religion  is  largely  occupied 
with  worship,  sometimes  in  the  form  of  contemplative 
awe  and  ecstasy,  sometimes  of  labour  for  the  glory 
of  God;  its  God  is  a  high  and  holy  Personality  of 
illimitable  perfection,  far  removed  from  the  strug- 
gles and  trials  of  this  mortal  life,  which  is  a  mere  epi- 
sode or  probationary  discipline  before  men's  souls  are 
lapped  for  ever  in  the  peace  of  the  Eternal,  or  are 
tortured  by  exclusion  from  His  presence  for  all  eter- 
nity. 

Between  the  extremes  comes  the  religion  which  we 
know   as   Christianity.    Looked   at   cosmically,   this 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY       251 

aims  at  being  a  comprehensive  and  inclusive  scheme, 
capable  of  embracing  the  essential  elements  of  both 
the  other  systems, — recognising  and  worshipping  God 
in  the  Highest,  loving  and  serving  man  even  at  his 
lowest,  accepting  the  facts  of  nature  and  despising 
nothing  that  exists,  desiring  to  utilise  the  opportuni- 
ties of  this  present  life  to  the  uttermost,  and  yet  be- 
lieving that  it  is  possibly  not  the  beginning,  certainly 
not  the  end,  of  our  existence;  rejoicing  in  the  objects 
of  sense,  realising  also  the  beauty  and  truth  of  things 
only  reached  now  by  studious  contemplation,  reject- 
ing the  idea  of  any  ultimate  conflict  between  matter 
and  spirit,  and,  when  they  appear  to  conflict,  giving 
supremacy  to  the  spiritual. 

It  is  the  mission  of  the  Priest  to  emphasise  one  of 
these  aspects;  it  is  the  business  of  the  Naturalist  to 
emphasise  the  other ;  it  is  the  desire  of  the  Philosopher 
to  realise  the  element  of  truth  in  both  departments,  to 
grasp  truth  in  its  breadth  and  comprehensiveness; 
while  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Religious  man  to  apply  the 
truths,  so  recognised,  in  the  conduct  of  practical  life. 

But  the  task  of  the  unifier  is  not  an  easy  one;  it  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  every  exuberant  utterance  of 
the  mystic  is  true,  that  every  balanced  imitation  of  the 
naturalist  is  true,  and  that  it  only  remains  to  under- 
stand and  accept  both.  His  task  is  much  harder  than 
that:  he  has  to  exercise  discrimination,  to  scrutinise 
and  weigh  carefully,  not  letting  himself  be  over-per- 
suaded by  the  enthusiasts  on  either  side,  and  so  gradu- 
ally to  evolve  for  himself  a  system  of  thought  which  is 
as  true  and  helpful  as  may  be  possible  to  a  being  in  his 


252  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

present  state  of  development.  This  is  the  task  which 
lies  before  us  all,  and  this  is  the  task  upon  which  the 
great  prophets  of  humanity,  each  in  his  day  and  gen- 
eration, have  been  engaged.  This  work  absorbs  the 
attention  of  many  leading  Christian  theologians  at 
the  present  time — men  who  exhibit  welcome  breadth 
of  knowledge  and  are  imbued  with  scientific  method. 

I.  The  Correspondence  of  Spiritual  and  Ma- 
terial 

First  of  all,  then,  the  whole  doctrine  of  "Incarna- 
tion' '  exhibits  an  idea  of  the  interaction  between  the 
spiritual  and  material.  Just  as  man  has  at  least  a  dual 
nature — the  material  organism  and  the  dominant  mind 
— so  it  was  felt  must  God  be  thought  of  as  interacting 
directly  with  this  material  scheme,  and  must  be  sup- 
posed incarnated  in  or  clothed  upon  with  a  material 
body,  subject  to  growth,  disintegration,  and  death, 
like  our  own.  An  extraordinary  and  bold  concep- 
tion, manifestly  symbolic  or  pictorial  of  something, — 
not  literal  nor  reducible  to  any  simple  formula, — it 
nevertheless  involves  a  great  truth,  the  kinship  be- 
tween spirit  and  matter.  Any  divine  revelation  to  be 
accessible  to  us,  must  have  an  accessible  and  bodily 
form.  So  must  a  ghost  or  vision;  however  objectively 
unreal  it  may  be,  it  must  appear  in  the  likeness  of  man, 
and  will  usually  have  garments  such  as  we  have  been 
accustomed  to  associate  with  human  beings:  it  must 
appear  in  material  accessories,  or  it  could  not  appear 
at  all.  That  is  the  essence  of  revelation :  and  even  in 
the  most  sublimated  case,  even  if  no  outward  form  or 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY      253 

voice  were  subjectively  constructed,  yet  something  in 
the  brain  must  be  affected,  else  not  only  could  there  be 
neither  speech  nor  language,  there  could  not  be  any 
definite  impression,  not  even  the  vanishing  impression 
of  a  dream. 

But  the  materialising  tendency  of  the  human  race 
has  gone  farther  than  that.  Given  the  incarnation  of 
a  divine  spirit  in  a  mortal  frame,  they  have  not  been 
content  with  that  already  sufficiently  difficult  idea; 
they  have  pressed  further  to  ask  how  that  body  was 
produced,  and  what  ultimately  became  of  it;  and  so 
we  have  legends  of  abnormal  birth  and  of  bodily 
resurrection. 

But  the  latter  difficulty  is  not  a  problem  raised  by 
the  phenomena  associated  with  Christ  alone;  it  is  a 
difficulty  which  has  troubled  all  humanity.  We  are 
all  supposed  to  be  spirits  endowed  with  immortality, 
as  taught  the  ancients;  but  we  all  have  bodies — the 
apparently  necessary  medium  of  manifestation  and  of 
individuality, — what  becomes  of  them?  Socrates  was 
content  to  suppose  that  the  body  remained  behind, 
sloughed  off,  and  was  restored  to  the  elements  of  this 
material  world.  But  the  early  Christians  were  not 
satisfied  thus  to  get  rid  of  their  material  part:  a  vein 
of  materialism  ran  through  their  Christianity;  they 
supposed  that  the  bodies  were  only  temporarily  dis- 
carded, and  would  ultimately  rise  and  rejoin  their  di- 
vorced spirits  at  the  sound  of  some  future  signal:  a 
grotesque  idea  which,  strange  to  say,  still  survives  in 
the  thoughts  of  unimaginative  persons  and  in  some 
portions  of  the  liturgy. 


254  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

But,  it  is  contended,  this  is  an  essential  part  of 
Christianity,  however  it  be  interpreted ;  the  mere  per- 
sistence of  existence  was  a  pagan  idea  and  existed  long 
before  Christ.  The  special  feature  of  Christianity 
was  not  the  survival  or  persistence  of  existence,  even 
of  individual  existence,  but  the  resurrection  of  the 
body ;  and  hence  this  doctrine  is  rightly  emphasised  in 
the  creeds. 

Moreover,  the  very  basis  of  Christianity — the  In- 
carnation— emphasises  and  dignifies  the  perception 
that  man  consists  essentially  of  both  soul  and  body, 
and  that  he  is  to  be  aided  and  raised  and  saved,  not  by 
spiritual  influences  alone,  but  by  agencies  appealing 
to  his  senses  and  acting  primarily  upon  his  bodily  or- 
ganism. 

It  is  the  neglect  of  this  truth  which  has  often  ren- 
dered the  evangelising  activity  of  religious  bodies  so 
futile.  They  have  tried  to  save  souls  alone.  They 
are  growing  wiser  now,  and  are  beginning  to  realise 
that  once  bodily  conditions  are  set  fairly  right,  peo- 
ple's souls  are  much  better  than  has  been  credited; 
there  is  a  lot  of  innate  goodness  in  humanity,  and  to 
enable  it  to  blossom  and  flourish  it  needs  little  more 
than  the  material  care  which  is  lavished  upon  the 
plants  in  the  garden.  They  themselves  do  the  flower- 
ing and  fruiting, — the  gardener  has  only  to  expose 
them  to  sun  and  air  to  keep  them  clear  of  parasites 
and  weeds. 

And  so,  throughout,  it  will  be  found  that  Christi- 
anity has  a  definitely  materialistic  side ;  and  it  becomes 
a  question  for  us  what  is  to  be  the  modern  interpreta- 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY      255 

tion  of  all  the  singularly  developed  mediaeval  doc- 
trine, and  how  far  it  is  to  be  accepted  as  in  any  sense 
corresponding  to  reality.  For  that  it  is  not  to  be  ac- 
cepted in  a  crude  form,  such  as  that  in  which  it  is 
preached  by  ignorant  persons  to-day,  was  obvious  to 
the  New  Testament  writers,  and  doubtless  to  the  most 
enlightened  saints  of  all  time;  but  that  it  contains 
some  element  of  truth,  enshrined  in  its  strange  form- 
alism is  to  be  strongly  maintained. 

The  purely  spiritual  side  of  religion,  so  far  as  it 
contents  itself  with  positive  assertion  and  is  not  oc- 
cupied with  denying  material  facts,  does  not  now  con- 
cern us.  It  is  the  material  side  which  I  wish  to  con- 
sider, especially  whether  religion  should  have  a  ma- 
terialistic basis,  and  how  far  its  excursion  into  ma- 
terialism may  be  warranted  by  experience.  It  is 
plain  that  for  our  present  mode  of  apprehending  the 
universe  a  material  vehicle  is  essential ;  that  which  has 
no  contact  with  the  world  of  matter  cannot  be  di- 
rectly apprehended,  and  has  for  us  no  effective  exist- 
ence. A  purely  spiritual  agency  may  be  active  and 
the  activity  may  be  guessed  at  or  inferred,  and  may 
be  believed  in,  but  the  only  evidence  of  its  existence 
that  can  be  adduced  is  the  manifestation  of  that  ac- 
tivity through  matter,  and  the  only  moments  when  a 
glimpse  can  be  caught  of  the  activity  are  the  moments 
at  which  action  on  matter  occurs. 

Dreams,  visions,  thoughts,  inspirations, — all  things 
known  to  us,  no  matter  how  intangible  and  subtle 
their  essence— are  enabled  to  enter  what  we  call  our 
present  consciousness  solely  by  some  action  on,  or  ac- 


256  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

tion  in,  the  brain.  They  may  act  on  other  material 
particles  too,  but  on  the  matter  of  the  brain  they  must 
act,  or  they  give  no  sign. 

A  whole  world  may  exist  beyond  our  senses,  may 
exist  even  in  space  and  close  to  us  for  all  we  can  tell, 
and  yet  if  it  has  no  means  of  connexion,  no  links  with 
the  material  world,  it  must  remain  outside  our  con- 
sciousness; and  this  isolation  must  last  until  we  grow 
a  new  sense,  or  otherwise  develop  fresh  faculties,  so 
that  intercommunication  and  interaction  can  begin. 
Whether  there  is  any  interaction  at  present  between 
this  and  a  supersensual  world  is  a  question  that  may 
be  debated,  but  the  above  assertion  that  some  such 
interaction  is  an  essential  preliminary  to  our  recogni- 
tion of  such  a  world  is  hardly  susceptible  of  debate. 

Now,  this  dependence  of  the  spiritual  on  a  vehicle 
for  manifestation  is  not  likely  to  be  a  purely  tempor- 
ary condition:  it  is  probably  a  sign  or  example  of 
something  which  has  an  eternal  significance,  a  repre- 
sentation of  some  permanent  truth. 

That  is  certainly  the  working  hypothesis  which, 
until  negatived,  we  ought  to  make.  Our  senses  limit 
us,  but  do  not  deceive  us:  so  far  as  they  go,  they  tell 
us  the  truth.  I  wish  to  proceed  on  that  hypothesis. 
To  suppose  that  our  experience  of  the  necessary  and 
fundamental  connexion  between  the  two  things — the 
something  which  we  know  as  mind  and  the  something 
which  is  now  represented  by  matter — has  no  counter- 
part or  enlargement  in  the  actual  scheme  of  the  uni- 
verse, as  it  really  exists,  is  needlessly  to  postulate  con- 
fusion and  instrumental  deception. 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY      257 

Philosophers  have  been  so  impressed  with  this  that 
they  have  conjectured  that  mind  and  matter  are  but 
aspects,  or  modes  of  perception,  of  one  fundamental 
comprehensive  unity ;  a  unity  which  is  neither  exactly 
mind  nor  exactly  matter  as  we  conceive  them,  but  is 
something  fundamental  and  underlying  both,  as  the 
ether  is  now  conceived  of  as  sustaining  and  in  some 
sense  constituting  all  the  phenomena  of  the  visible 
universe. 

This  monistic  view,  if  true  at  all,  is  likely  to  be  per- 
manently and  actually  true;  and,  though  it  by  no 
means  follows  that  mind  is  dependent  on  matter  as  we 
know  it,  it  will  probably  be  still  by  means  of  something 
akin  to  matter — something  which  can  act  as  a  ve- 
hicle and  represent  it  in  the  same  sort  of  way  that 
matter  represents  it  now — that  it  will  hereafter  be 
manifested. 

This  probability  or  possibility  may  be  regarded  as 
one  form  of  statement  of  an  orthodox  Christian  doc- 
trine. Assuming  that  Christianity  emphasises  the 
material  aspect  of  religion,  as  its  supporters  assert  that 
it  does,  it  supplements  the  mere  survival  of  a  discar- 
nate  spirit,  a  homeless  wanderer  or  melancholy  ghost, 
with  the  warm  and  comfortable  clothing  of  something 
that  may  legitimately  be  spoken  of  as  a  "body";  that 
is  to  say,  it  postulates  a  supersensually  visible  and  tan- 
gible vehicle  or  mode  of  manifestation,  fitted  to  sub- 
serve the  needs  of  future  existence  as  our  bodies  sub- 
serve the  needs  of  terrestrial  life — an  ethereal  or  other 
entity  constituting  the  persistent  "other  aspect,"  and 


258  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

fulfilling  some  of  the  functions  which  the  atoms  of 
terrestrial  matter  are  employed  to  fulfil  now. 

Not  only  the  authority  of  St.  Paul,  but  the  influ- 
ence also  of  poets,  can  be  appealed  to  as  sustaining 
some  truth  underlying  the  crude  idea  above  formu- 
lated. To  them  the  highest  feelings  have,  and  appear 
necessarily  to  have,  a  material  outcome  or  counterpart 
associated  with  them.  Take  "love,"  for  instance: 
many  have  been  the  attempts  to  spiritualise  it  into  a 
discarnate  entity;  and  doubtless  it  is  in  its  highest 
form  the  purest  and  least  gross  of  all  the  emotions; 
yet  it  must  ultimately  be  recognised  that  it  has  a  sac- 
ramental or  material  side,  wherein  the  flesh  and  the 
spirit  are  united  and  inseparable,  and  wThere  neither 
can  be  discarded  without  loss  to  the  other.  It  has  been 
always  easy  to  deride  and  condemn  the  bodily  side  of 
our  nature,  but  by  the  highest  seers  this  has  not  been 
done.  The  glorification  and  transfiguration,  not  the 
reprobation,  of  the  body  has  been  the  theme  of  the 
highest  prophets  and  poets,  and  those  who  in  "matter" 
detect  nothing  but  evil  are  essential,  though  well- 
meaning,  blasphemers.  It  has  been  easy  also  to  tilt 
the  balance  the  other  way,  and,  by  discarding  or  ig- 
noring the  spiritual  side,  to  wallow  and  blaspheme  in  a 
far  more  degraded  and  degrading  manner.  This 
tendency  in  times  of  decadence  has  been  dominant, 
and  nations  and  individuals  have  had  to  struggle  with 
the  overweight  of  their  animal  ancestry,  and  some 
have  succumbed ;  but,  shorn  of  its  exaggeration,  there 
is  a  truth  to  be  perceived  on  the  material  side  too,  and 
we  must  be  careful  that  in  spurning  the  exaggeration 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY      259 

we  do  not  lose  some  of  the  essential  truth  embodied  in 
it.  In  so  far  as  the  mis-called  "fleshly  school  of  poet- 
ry," for  instance,  is  not  fleshly  in  any  low  sense,  but 
inspired,  the  permanence  and  importance  and  dignity 
of  the  side  now  known  as  material  is  the  truth  which  is 
being  preached.1  It  may  happen  that  in  some  cases 
the  message  is  too  dazzling  for  the  messenger,  and  he 
may  succumb  to  the  enchantment  of  his  vision,  so  that 
he  lose  the  jewel  itself  and  be  left  blindly  grasping 
only  its  empty  setting ;  but  the  message  itself  must  not 
be  unduly  discredited  on  that  account. 

Assuming  then — as  consonant  with,  or  even  as  part 
of,  Christianity — the  doctrine  of  the  dignity  and  nec- 
essary character  of  some  quasi-material  counterpart 
of  every  spiritual  essence,  it  becomes  our  duty  to  in- 
quire what  part  of  this  connexion  is  essential,  and 
what  is  accidental  and  temporary. 

Take  our  present  incarnation  as  an  example.  We 
display  ourselves  to  mankind  in  the  garb  of  certain 
clothes,  artificially  constructed  of  animal  and  vegeta- 
ble materials,  and  in  the  form  of  a  certain  material  or- 
ganism, put  together  by  processes  of  digestion  and  as- 
similation, likewise  composed  of  terrestrial  materials. 

The  identity  of  the  corporeal  substances  and  chemi- 
cal compounds  is  evidently  not  of  a  permanent  and 
important  character.  Whether  they  formed  part  of 
sheep  or  birds  or  fish  or  plants,  they  are  assimilated 

1 1  regret  to  have  to  refer,  even  for  the  sake  of  illustration,  to 
this  discredited  and  noxious  criticism  of  the  poetry  of  Rossetti,  but  I 
hope  that  the  lofty  character  of  the  thing  criticised  is  sufficiently  manifest 
to  enable  every  reader  to  perceive  the  beauty  of  the  message  and  the 
inspiration  of  the  poet. 


260  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

and  become  part  of  us,  being  arranged  by  our  sub- 
conscious activities  and  vital  processes  into  appropri- 
ate form,  just  as  truly  as  other  materials  are  con- 
sciously woven  into  garments,  no  matter  what  they  or- 
iginally sprang  from.  Moreover,  just  as  our  clothes 
wear  out  and  require  darning  and  patching,  so  our 
bodies  wear  out;  the  particles  are  in  continual  flux; 
each  giving  place  to  others,  and  being  constantly  dis- 
carded and  renewed.  The  identity  of  the  actual  or 
instantaneous  body  is  therefore  an  affair  of  no  impor- 
tance: the  individuality  lies  deeper  than  that,  and  be- 
longs to  whatever  it  is  which  put  the  particles  together 
in  this  shape  and  not  another. 

II.  The  Resurrection  of  the  Body 

When,  therefore,  at  what  we  call  death,  this  con- 
trolling entity  leaves  the  terrestrial  sphere  of  things — 
assuming  that  it  does  not  promptly  go  out  of  exist- 
ence, a  thing  which  it  would  be  very  surprising  for 
any  existing  entity  to  do — it  is  unnecessary  to  suppose 
that  it  will  continue  in  a  wholly  discarnate  condition 
for  a  time,  until  presently  it  becomes  able  to  resume 
the  poor  decayed  refuse  which  it  left  behind  on  this 
planet. 

The  idea  of  rejoining  the  corpse  in  this  sense  is  un- 
thinkable and  repulsive:  it  could  only  arise  in  ages  of 
ignorance.  The  identity  of  the  material  particles 
does  not  constitute  the  identity  of  the  person,  nor  is 
it  essential  to  the  identity  of  the  body.  What  is 
wanted  to  make  definite  our  thoughts  of  the  persistent 
existence  of  what  we  call  our  immortal  part,  is  simply 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY       261 

the  persistent  power  of  manifesting  itself  to  friends, 
i.e.  to  persons  with  whom  we  are  in  sympathy,  by 
means  as  plain  and  substantial  in  that  order  of  ex- 
istence as  the  body  was  here — though  the  manifesta- 
tion need  not  be  of  so  broadcast  and  indiscriminate  a 
character  as  it  is  now  ;* — we  may  surmise  that  any  im- 
mortal part  must  have  the  power  of  constructing  for 
itself  a  suitable  vehicle  of  manifestation  which  is  the 
essential  meaning  of  the  term  "body." 

The  question  whether  the  individuality  and  personal 
identity  and  consciousness  and  memory,  and  all  that 
constitutes  an  ego,  are  preserved,  is  worthy  of  exami- 
nation and  research;  the  fate  of  the  terrestrial  residue 
is  of  no  great  consequence — not  much  more  than  if  it 
consisted  solely  of  old  clothes. 

To  those  who  stigmatise  this  as  dualism,  and  say 
that  it  is  contrary  to  the  ultimate  identity  of  matter 
and  spirit,  I  reply  No.  Monism  does  not  assert  that 
atoms  of  matter  are  any  aspect  of  me.  The  pen- 
holder is  an  instrument  subservient  to  my  will,  and  it 
may  be  made  to  express  my  thought,  but  it  is  no  part 
of  me — I  can  throw  it  down  when  done  with,  and 
when  worn  out  I  can  burn  or  bury  it,  but  I  do  not 

i  This  sentence  probably  requires  amplification:  its  meaning  is  this 
■ — Present  human  bodies  bring  us  into  contact  with  strangers  and  make 
us  aware  of  people  in  whom  perchance  we  take  no  interest.  Hereafter 
our  acquaintanceship  may  perhaps  be  limited  to  those  with  whom  we 
are  linked  by  ties  of  affinity  and  affection — the  mode  of  communication 
being  probably  of  a  more  sympathetic  or  telepathic  character,  and  less 
physical,  than  now.  If  so,  this  planetary  episode  is  a  great  opportunity 
for  enlarging  our  sympathies  and  for  making  new  friends;  so  that  the 
emphasis  laid  by  great  prophets  on  "love,"  and  their  condemnation  of 
selfishness  as  a  deadly  vice  specially  destructive  of  fulness  of  person- 
ality and  wealth  of  existence,  becomes  amply  intelligible. 


262  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

thereby  lose  the  power  of  taking  another,  nor  of  learn- 
ing to  write  with  a  different  instrument  and  in  another 
language  if  I  travel  to  other  countries.  There  may 
be  a  sense  in  which  all  matter  is  evidence  of,  and  an 
aspect  of,  the  thought  of  some  World-Mind;  but 
most  of  it  is  certainly  neither  evidence  nor  aspect  of 
my  mind.  Matter  divorced  from  all  Mind  whatever 
may  possibly  thereby  cease  to  exist ;  but  the  furniture 
certainly  does  not  cease  to  exist  when  I  leave  the  room, 
— nor  would  it  be  affected  if  all  humanity  were  to 
perish  off  the  planet. 

Those  who  press  monism  to  these  absurd  lengths 
will  find  a  difficulty  in  preserving  the  clearness  of 
their  thoughts ;  and  in  self-defence  they  will  take  ref- 
uge in  a  narrow  and  illiterate  and  most  unscientific 
variety  of  dogmatic  scepticism,  or  agnostic  dogma- 
tism. 

Soul  and  Body 

The  phrase  "resurrection  of  the  body"  undoubtedly 
dates  back  to  a  period  when  it  was  thought  that  the 
residue  laid  in  the  grave  would  at  some  future  signal 
be  collected  and  resuscitated  and  raised  in  the  air :  and 
superstitions  about  missing  fragments  and  about  the 
permissibility  of  cremation,  even  to  this  day,  are  not 
extinct.  But  all  this  is  clearly  infantile,  and  has  long 
been  discarded  by  leaders  of  thought;  and  it  were 
good  if  the  phrases  responsible  for  the  misunderstand- 
ing could  be  amended  also. 

"Resurrection  of  a  bodv"  would  be  but  little  im- 
provement,  for  the  body  that  hereafter  "shall  be"  is 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY      263 

not  that  body  which  was  planted  in  the  ground;  and 
the  future  "body"  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  risen 
from  the  grave.  Nor  does  the  Nicene  version  "resur- 
rection of  the  dead"  give  much  assistance,  for  that 
which  survives  is  just  that  which  never  was  dead;  it 
did  not  cease  to  be,  and  then  arise  to  new  life ;  its  ex- 
istence, if  persistent  at  all,  is  necessarily  continuous; 
the  whole  argument  for  persistence  of  existence  de- 
pends on  continuity, — on  the  fact  that  real  existence 
does  not  suddenly  spring  into  being  out  of  nothing, 
and  then  suddenly  vanish  as  if  it  had  not  been. 

Perhaps  the  word  "resurrection"  may  be  interpreted 
as  meaning  revival  or  survival;  and  "death"  can  be  de- 
fined as  a  separation  between  the  psychical  and  physi- 
cal aspects  of  an  individual,  and  as  a  definite  physico- 
chemical  process  occurring  to  the  body  or  material 
vehicle  of  manifestation.  So  far  as  the  undying  es- 
sence or  spirit  is  concerned  the  teaching  of  Socrates 
holds  to  this  day:  "Let  them  bury  him  if  they  could 
catch  him:  but  he  himself  would  be  out  of  their  reach." 

It  is  all  very  well  to  stigmatise  this  as  pagan  teach- 
ing, and  to  hold  it  in  light  esteem, — it  is  teaching  to 
which  multitudes  to-day  have  not  risen ;  and  a  real  and 
vital  belief  in  such  a  doctrine  could  not  but  have  a  be- 
neficent influence  on  conduct.  It  may  be  true  to  say 
Christianity  assumes  all  that,  and  supplements  it  with 
the  Pauline  doctrine  of  a  resurrection-body,  or  spirit- 
ual body; — it  does,  but  it  is  likewise  true  that  the 
phrases  of  the  Church  do  not  assist  people  to  grasp 
even  the  truth  underlying  the  Socratic  doctrine  of  im- 
mortality, and  so,  when  they  perceive  the  falsity  of 


261  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

corporeal  resurrection,  they  are  apt  to  lose  faith  even 
in  persistence  of  existence.  Having  heen  accustomed 
to  associate  personality  with  a  buried  corpse,  the  mani- 
fest decay  and  dissipation  of  the  body  destroys,  in  the 
semi-educated,  the  whole  idea  of  immortality ;  and  with 
it  is  apt  to  go  religion  too.  "Resurrection"  is  itself 
a  misleading  word :  the  phrases  which  suggest  that  the 
person  himself  is  entombed,  the  phrases  about  wait- 
ing till  the  last  day,  and  about  the  general  resurrec- 
tion, even  the  habit  of  burying  with  the  face  to  the 
east,  and  the  custom  of  burying  relatives  together,  are 
all  misleading  or  are  liable  to  misinterpretation. 
Some  of  these  customs  are  legitimate  and  humanly 
intelligible;  and  so  strong  a  hold  have  these  ideas  on 
mankind,  that  even  the  greatest  poets,  who  have 
shaken  themselves  loose  from  the  thought,  cannot,  and 
possibly  do  not  wish  to,  shake  themselves  loose  from 
the  time-honoured  language  in  which  it  was  embedded, 
for  even  Tennyson  says : 

"in  the  vast  Cathedral  leave  him." 

But  God  forbid  that  I  should  presume  to  pragma- 
tise  or  dogmatise  as  to  the  language  which  ought  to 
be  employed:  let  us  get  our  thoughts  clear,  and  the 
language  of  devotion  and  of  poetry  may  continue  to 
be  employed  in  due  season.  Words  and  ancient 
phrases  can  touch  the  emotions,  as  music  can,  without 
being  too  closely  scrutinised  by  the  intellect;  the  for- 
mula? of  centuries  must  be  respected,  and  a  priggish 
precision  of  expression  may  be  quite  unsuited  to  wor- 
ship. 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY      265 


III.  The  Resurrection  of  Christ 

Let  us  then,  in  a  spirit  of  orthodoxy,  now  approach 
the  person  of  Christ — the  Christ  long  recognised  by 
Christendom  as  a  Divine  Person  in  human  form:  let 
us  assume  that  in  order  to  display  himself  to  the  in- 
habitants of  this  planet  he  was  provided  with  a  body 
like  our  own,  eating  and  drinking  and  sleeping  and 
suffering  and  dying  like  any  of  us:  what  should  we 
expect  to  happen  to  his  body — the  body  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth — when  it  was  done  with? 

That  he  should  survive  death,  that  he  should  be  able 
to  appear  to  worshippers,  that  he  would  exert  a  peren- 
nial and  vivifying  influence  on  his  disciples  of  all  time 
— all  this  is  orthodox,  and  all  this  is  not  repugnant  to 
science  as  I  conceive  it.  Is  anj^thing  more  necessary  ? 
That  a  historial  legend  should  have  grown  up  con- 
cerning the  disappearance  of  the  body  from  a  tomb  is 
almost  inevitable,  considering  the  state  of  belief  at  the 
time.  If  an  apparition  of  someone  recently  deceased 
appeared  now  to  ignorant  people,  I  imagine  that  most 
of  them  would  expect  the  corpse  to  have  been  utilised 
for  the  purpose,  and  to  have  been  either  temporarily 
or  permanently  disturbed  in  its  grave.  And  to  dis- 
prove a  continued  existence  it  might  be  held  sufficient, 
among  ignorant  people,  to  point  triumphantly  to  a 
tomb  not  empty. 

But,  then,  Christ  by  ecclesiastical  hypothesis  was 
unique:  he  was  not  as  one  of  us,  his  appearance  was 
likely  to  transcend  ours,  and  his  body  was  likely  to  be 


266  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

differently  constituted  from  ours :  so  it  has  been  main- 
tained. 

I  think  it  may  be  argued  that,  thus  conceived,  the 
Incarnation  would  hardly  sustain  the  complete  and 
efficient  character  which  orthodox  creeds  claim  for  it. 
The  whole  idea  of  the  Manhood  is  that  he  was  a  man 
like  ourselves,  subject  to  human  needs,  open  even  to 
temptation,  obedient  to  pain  and  death.  That  his 
spirit  was  superior  to  ours  few  deny,  but  that  his  body 
was  essentially  different  I  confess  seems  to  me  like 
superstition.  His  raiment  at  any  rate  was  made  in 
the  ordinary  way,  yet  it  too  shared  in  the  glory  of  the 
transfiguration.  The  Transfiguration  was  a  splendid 
episode,  typifying  the  dignifying  and  dominating  of 
matter  by  the  indwelling  spirit.  The  shining  in  the 
eye  of  genius,  the  almost  visible  glow  pervading  the 
body  in  moments  of  exaltation,  this,  raised  to  a  higher 
power,  permeated  and  suffused  the  poor  human  body 
and  travel-worn  peasant  garments  of  Christ,  till  the 
few  privileged  witnesses  had  to  shade  their  eyes. 

So  it  is  reported  concerning  Moses  after  his  solitary 
communion  with  Jehovah;  so  it  may  have  been  with 
Joan  of  Arc;  so  it  may  be  again  from  time  to  time 
with  the  most  exalted  saints.  These  things  are  le- 
gends, it  is  true,  but  they  are  more  than  legends ;  they 
bear  on  their  face  the  signs  of  hyperphysical  truth — 
not  in  detail  of  narration,  perhaps,  but  in  essence.  So 
it  was  with  Saul's  vision  at  Damascus;  so  it  may  have 
been  with  the  scene  at  the  Baptism;  so,  it  is  not  in- 
conceivable, may  there  be  some  foundation  of  truth 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY       267 

even  for  the  legendary  appearances  to  Magi  and  to 
shepherds  at  the  Nativity. 

The  mental  and  the  physical  are  so  interwoven,  the 
possibilities  of  clairvoyance  are  so  unexplored,  that  I 
do  not  feel  constrained  to  abandon  the  traditional  idea 
that  the  coming  or  the  going  of  a  great  personality 
may  be  heralded  and  accompanied  by  strange  oc- 
currences in  the  region  of  physical  force.  The  mind 
of  man  is  competent  to  enchain  and  enthrall  the  forces 
of  nature,  and  to  produce  strange  and  weird  effects 
that  would  not  otherwise  have  occurred.  Shall  the 
power  be  limited  to  his  conscious  intelligence?  May 
it  not  also  be  within  the  power  of  the  subconscious  in- 
telligence, at  moments  of  ecstasy,  or  at  epochs  of 
strong  emotion  or  of  transition? 

That  there  should  be  storms  and  earthquakes  at  the 
Crucifixion  is  sure  to  be  legendary,  but  that  it  was 
likewise  true  is  not  in  the  least  inconceivable.  We 
know  too  little  to  be  able  to  dogmatise  on  such  things : 
we  must  observe  and  generalise  as  we  can. 

Hence  if  the  historical  evidence  is  strong  and  de- 
finite for  the  disappearance,  not  of  bodies  from  tombs, 
but  of  that  one  Body  from  its  tomb — the  exception 
being  justified  on  the  ground  of  its  having  been  in- 
habited by  an  exceptionally  mighty  Spirit — I  am  not 
one  to  seek  to  deny  the  possibility  on  scientific 
grounds.  I  will  only  say  that  the  proof  of  material 
resurrection  or  resuscitation  adduced  in  the  Gospel  is 
not  such  as  will  bear  scrutiny:  it  offers  no  case  what- 
ever to  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research.    If  the 


268  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

stone  and  the  seal  and  the  watch  had  been  found  in- 
tact, and  yet  the  tomb  empty,  there  would  have  been 
something  to  investigate.  But  to  find  the  place  aban- 
doned, and  the  stone  rolled  away,  is  equivalent  to  find 
the  grave  rifled :  no  question  of  dematerialisation  need 
arise.  But  surely  that  is  not  what  should  be  meant  by 
Christian  Resurrection :  I  submit  that  for  the  purposes 
of  religion  at  the  present  day  no  exceptional  treat- 
ment of  the  discarded  human  body  is  necessary;  and 
the  difficulties  introduced  by  the  effort  to  contemplate 
the  circumstances  of  anything  approaching  physical 
resuscitation,  or  re-employment  of  the  same  body,  are 
very  great. 

The  Appearances  during  the  Forty  Days  are  not 
inconsistent  with  the  legends  of  apparitions  the  world 
over;  and  a  farewell  phantasmal  appearance — des- 
cribed as  an  Ascension — is  credible  enough.  The 
presence  of  the  wounds  also  is  quite  consistent  with 
what  is  observable  in  apparitions  as  known  to  us :  they 
by  no  means  establish  physical  identity.  The  body 
notoriously  had  not  its  old  properties,  for  it  appeared 
and  disappeared  and  penetrated  walls ;  and  ultimately 
this  supposed  compound  of  terrestrial  particles  as- 
cended into  another  order  of  things,  "and  sat  down 
for  ever  at  the  right  hand  of  God."  We  are  out  of 
the  region  of  physics  here,  and  attention  to  the  details 
of  any  material  body  in  such  an  atmosphere  introduces 
strangely  inappropriate  considerations :  the  very  atoms 
of  which  it  was  composed  would  not  last  for  ever,  the 
chemical  compounds  would  soon  decay:  surely  we 
need  not  assert  such  a  thing  of  the  body  which  was 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY       269 

buried  in  the  tomb,  any  more  than  we  assert  it  of  the 
four  or  five  previous  bodies  which,  during  the  Incar- 
nation, had  been  worn  and  discarded,  particle  by  par- 
ticle. 

Moreover,  it  is  depressing  to  the  ordinary  Christian, 
who  knows  or  ought  to  know  that  his  own  flesh,  bones, 
and  other  appurtenances  will  assuredly  not  rise,  to 
have  to  think  of  Christ's  Resurrection  as  a  unique 
occurrence;  for  the  express  Pauline  doctrine  of  the 
Resurrection  is  that  it  is  the  type  or  pattern  of  our 
resurrection;  and  the  more  normally  we  can  regard 
the  human  side  of  Christ,  and  everything  connected 
with  his  body  both  before  and  after  death,  the  better 
and  more  hopeful  is  it  for  us  his  brethren. 

May  I  suggest  that  the  mystical  spirit,  which  is  the 
vital  essence  of  any  church  or  religious  fellowship, 
though  it  may  be  incarnate  for  a  time  in  a  creed, 
should  not  be  for  ever  fossilised  therein,  but  should 
continue  open  to  the  fertilising  influences  of  reason 
and  expanding  kowledge,  and,  like  any  other  spirit, 
should  dominate  and  survive  its  material  body. 

SUMMARY  OF  CHAPTER  XII 

Lest  it  be  thought  that  a  wholesome  and  proper  in- 
gredient of  materialism  as  an  element  in  Christianity 
has  been  in  this  chapter  attacked,  let  me  try  to  make 
plainer  the  balanced  position  taken  or  intended  by  at- 
tempting a  summary  of  its  main  points.  Its  conten- 
tions are  as  follows : 

1.  That  Christianity  is  an  intermediate  and  unify- 


270  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

ing  religion,  between  the  extremes  of  spiritualism  on 
the  one  hand  and  materialism  on  the  other;  and  that 
the  whole  idea  of  a  divine  Incarnation  as  well  as  many 
of  the  miracles  and  the  sacraments,  can  be  regarded 
as  expressive  of  this  comprehensive  character. 

2.  That  the  correspondence  or  connexion  between 
matter  and  spirit,  as  now  known,  is  probably  a  symbol 
or  sample  of  something  permanently  true,  so  that  a 
double  aspect  of  every  fundamental  existence  is  likely 
always  to  continue;  but  that  the  supposed  necessary 
and  perpetual  dependence  of  the  human  spirit  on  ordi- 
nary chemical  terrestrial  matter,  for  its  manifestation 
and  activity,  is  illusory  and  superstitious.  1  Cor.  xv, 
49,  50. 

3.  That  not  only  persistence  of  existence  but  full 
retention  of  personality  and  individuality  can  be  con- 
ceived, without  the  hypothesis  of  retention  of  any 
particles  of  terrestrial  matter;  since  identity  of  person 
in  no  way  depends  upon  identity  of  particles  even 
now. 

4.  That  the  real  meaning  of  the  term  "body"  should 
be  explained  and  emphasised  as  connoting  anything 
which  is  able  to  manifest  feelings,  emotions,  and 
thoughts,  and  at  the  same  time  to  operate  efficiently 
on  its  environment.  The  temporary  character  of  the 
present  human  body  should  be  admitted  for  purposes 
of  religion;  although  it  usefully  and  truthfully  dis- 
plays the  incarnate  part  of  us  during  the  brief  episode 
of  terrestrial  life.     Job.  xix,  26. 

5.  That  the  incarnation  of  Divine  Spirit  called 
Christ  revealed  to  humanity  certain  aspects  of  Deity 


MATERIAL  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY       271 

in  a  unique  degree ;  but  the  more  akin  to  ordinary  hu- 
manity the  human  side  of  Christ  can  be  considered, 
the  more  luminous  is  the  teaching,  and  the  better  for 
the  hold  of  Christianity  upon  the  race.     1  Cor.  xv,  16. 

6.  One  of  the  lessons  to  be  learned  is  the  poten- 
tiality of  the  Divine  latent  in  all  humanity :  and  this  is 
displayed  both  in  its  freedom  to  rebel  and  in  its  power 
of  indispensable  and  filial  service.    John  x,  30,  35. 

7.  That  the  spread  of  scepticism  and  dogmatic  ag- 
nosticism is  largely  due  to  the  attempted  maintenance 
of  incredible  and  materialistic  dogmas  by  the  ortho- 
dox; to  the  comparative  neglect  of  the  essential,  the 
spiritual,  and  the  practical. 

8.  That  materialism  of  an  untransfigured  and  un- 
glorified  description  is  out  of  place  in  religion,  but 
that  the  right  kind  of  materialism  is  in  place.  For  the 
mystical  or  sacramental  use  of  earthly  materials  is 
helpful,  though  there  always  comes  a  point  at  which 
they  cease  to  be  expressive.  An  attempt  to  press  them 
beyond  their  significant  point  leads  to  impossible  de- 
tails, and  becomes  indistinguishable  from  fidgetting 
and  worrying  superstition,  unworthy  of  an  emanci- 
pated and  Affiliated  race. 

9.  That  the  salvation  offered  by  Christianity  is  of 
the  whole  man — body  and  soul  together — and  that 
this  fact  is  the  supreme  justification  for  energetic 
practical  effort  in  rectifying  social  abuses,  in  improv- 
ing social  conditions,  and  securing  to  people  generally 
a  fair  opportunity  for  a  decent  and  honourable  life. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

IV.  Christianity  and  History 

AS  a  physicist  my  desire  is  to  go  out  as  far  as  pos- 
sible to  meet  theologians  on  their  approach  to 
the  camp  of  physical  science;  for  it  is  generally  far 
more  useful  to  discover  points  of  possible  agreement 
than  to  emphasise  points  of  difference.  To  my  com- 
rades in  science  I  would  point  out  that  the  leading  men 
among  orthodox  Christians  now  set  us  a  good  ex- 
ample, since  they  no  longer  seem  to  desire  to  interpose 
any  insuperable  protest  against  overhauling  from  time 
to  time  the  material  and  historical  assertions  associated 
with  Christianity,  and  discarding  those  which  cannot 
be  established  as  facts.  Discarding,  that  is  to  say, 
those  which  do  not  satisfy  one  at  least  of  two  criteria 
or  conditions :  that  of  being  well  evidenced  historically 
on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of  satisfying  or  being  felt 
essential  to  spiritual  aspiration,  either  of  an  individual 
or  of  a  church  or  fellowship  on  the  other.  If  I  am 
right  in  this  understanding,  I  am  willing  to  accept  the 
criteria  suggested,  without  further  criticism,  and  have 
pleaded  in  the  foregoing  pages  for  the  gradual  re- 
consideration of  certain  traditional  tenets,  on  the 
grounds : 

272 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  273 

(a)  That  they  are  not  of  a  nature  to  be  well  ev- 
idenced historically  (to  say  more  than  that 
would  imply  that  I  regarded  myself  as  a 
competent  historical  critic)  ; 

(6)  That  they  are  not  edifying  to  people  at  any 
reasonable  intellectual  level;  while  as  to 
higher  spiritual  aspiration,  it  is  independent 
of  them. 

It  is  satisfactory  that  culture  and  learned  theolog- 
ians of  the  present  day  profess  themselves  ready  to 
welcome  criticism  of  dogmas  in  which  no  doubt  they 
personally  believe ;  and  we  can  now  shortly  proceed  to 
the  more  positive  or  constructive  division  of  our  sub- 
ject. 

Meanwhile  it  is  reasonable  to  accept  the  historic 
Christ,  as  represented  in  the  Gospel,  together  with  the 
general  account  given  of  his  teachings.  In  so  far  as 
the  record  is  not  accurate — and  even  without  any 
knowledge  of  biblical  criticism  we  must  admit  that  it 
is  bound  to  be  inaccurate — we  may  be  sure  that  the 
record  is  likely  to  be  inferior  to  the  reality,  that  the 
report  of  the  teachings  may  have  been  spoiled  and 
garbled  in  places  but  is  not  likely  to  have  been  im- 
proved. Some  of  these  spoilings  may  have  been  due 
to  misunderstanding,  others  to  a  desire  for  extra  edifi- 
cation; and  it  is  difficult  to  say  which  attitude  of  a 
transcriber  is  the  more  dangerous. 

A  similar  view,  however,  may  be  held  concerning 
the  record  of  the  words  of  any  astounding  genius; 
his  contemporaries  and  immediate  successors  are  not 


274  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

likely  to  improve  upon  his  teachings:  even  as  mere 
commentators  they  may  exhibit  well-intentioned  stu- 
pidity; but,  if  they  have  to  act  also  as  reporters, 
omission  eked  out  by  exaggeration  must  be  prominent, 
and  unconscious  misrepresentation  is  bound  to  occur. 

But  now  in  the  case  of  Christ  we  may  surely  go 
much  farther;  wre  may  admit  his  inspiration  in  an  ex- 
traordinary sense,  and  may  accept  the  general  con- 
sensus of  Christendom  as  testifying  to  his  essentially 
divine  character :  in  other  words,  he  must  perceive  that 
he  has  revealed  to  the  inhabitants  of  this  planet  some 
of  the  salient  features  of  Godhead  to  an  altogether 
exceptional  extent. 

He  displays,  in  fact,  attributes  which  many  persons 
understand  and  signify  when  they  use  the  word 
"God":  so  much  so,  that  they  call  him  by  the  name  of 
the  Spirit  which  he  reveals.1  He  does  not  display  all 
the  known  attributes  of  God — not  those  studied  in 
Natural  Theology,  for  instance, — but  he  exhibits 
those  which  are  most  important  to  poor  struggling 
humanity,  and  those  which  by  their  very  simplicity  and 
naturalness  might  otherwise  have  been  overlooked  by 
the  human  race,  or  stigmatised  as  too  hopelessly  an- 
thropomorphic. The  attributes  of  Fatherhood,  for  in- 
stance, strongly  and  simply  realised,  constitute  one 
revelation;  the  effective  combination,  or  even  identi- 
fication, of  love  of  God  with  service  of  neighbour, 
constitutes  another;  and  there  is,  it  seems  to  me,  an 

1  The  statement  that  the  Christ  depicted  in  the  gospels  is  God,  is  a 
statement  illustrative  of  our  conception  of  Godhead,  and  not  really  an 
explanatory  statement  concerning  Christ:  we  cannot  define  or  explain 
the  known  in  terms  of  the  unknown. 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  275 

even  bolder  conception  of  Deity  suggested,  in  the 
dramatic  parable  "the  child  in  the  midst,"  of  which  I 
fancy  we  have  but  an  abbreviated  version. 

The  only  place  where  we  find  it  necessary  to  hesi- 
tate, and  perhaps  to  remonstrate,  is  on  the  material- 
istic side  of  orthodox  Christianity — the  place  where 
the  ordinary  phenomena  of  nature  enter  into  the  doc- 
trines, and  are  more  or  less  associated  or  incorporated 
with  them.  Here  it  is  natural  to  plead  for  more  elas- 
tic treatment,  and  here  alone  do  I  imagine  that  the 
modern  mind  can  see  farther  and  walk  more  securely 
than  the  mediaeval  mind ;  it  is  possible  that  in  the  light 
of  accumulated  knowledge  it  can  in  some  respects 
see  more  clearly  than  even  the  saints  and  prophets  of 
the  past. 

It  has  been  the  perennial  glory  of  Christianity  that 
it  can  adapt  itself  to  all  conditions  of  men  and  to  all 
changing  periods  of  time;  but  it  has  done  so  always 
by  modification  of  the  non-essential :  the  spirit  and  es- 
sence have  preserved  their  identity;  the  accidentals, 
in  Judaea,  in  ancient  Rome,  in  mediaeval  Germany,  in 
modern  England  and  America, — the  accidentals  have 
been  different. 

But  throughout,  it  will  be  said,  certain  of  the  ma- 
terial aspects  have  preserved  their  continuity  and 
identity  unchanged.  Some  of  the  miracles,  especially 
the  physical  details  supposed  to  accompany,  or  by 
some  even  to  constitute,  the  Incarnation  and  the 
Resurrection,  have  never  been  doubted  by  Christians. 
Until  recently,  I  agree,  no,  not  to  any  great  extent; 
but  half  a  century  ago  they  were  seriously  doubted 


£76  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

by  the  people  who  thereby  felt  themselves  outside  the 
flock,  but  who  in  all  practical  details  of  life  and  con- 
duct were  as  good  as — well,  were  comparable  with — 
orthodox  Christians.  The  disbelief  went,  in  my  judg- 
ment, too  far :  it  extended  itself  to  some  of  the  spirit- 
ual teachings — those  concerning  prayer,  for  instance ; 
and  it  threw  needless  doubt  upon  some  phenomena, 
such  as  those  referred  to  in  the  last  chapter,  which 
may  after  all  have  been  facts.  Whether  it  went  too 
far  or  not,  an  atmosphere  of  disbelief  became  preva- 
lent; and  it  was  generated  by  the  persistence  of  the 
faithful  in  certain  material  statements  which  to  an 
age  of  more  knowledge  had  become  incredible.  The 
extreme  excursion  of  the  pendulum  has  subsided  now, 
but  it  is  still  swinging,  and  when  it  settles  down  it  will 
not  occupy  precisely  the  same  place  as  it  did  before 
the  oscillation  began.  The  swing  was  caused  by  a 
shifting  of  the  fulcrum  or  point  of  support,  and  only 
the  bob  has  been  visible.  So  it  has  become  our  duty  to 
determine  how  much  and  in  what  direction  the  real 
pivot  of  the  pendulum  has  been  effectively  moved,  and 
to  realise  that  that  is  the  position  which  will  be  taken 
by  the  oscillating  mass  of  opinion  when  present  dis- 
turbances have  subsided.  Those,  if  there  be  any,  who 
think  that  it  can  ever  go  back  permanently  to  a  pre- 
nineteenth-century  position,  or  to  a  position  deter- 
mined by  the  first  six  or  any  other  past  centuries,  are 
assuredly  mistaken. 

We  shall  now  endeavour  to  arrive  at  a  closer  ap- 
preciation of  what  the  essence  of  Christianity  really 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  277 

is;  first,  however,  recollecting  what  it  has  been  con- 
sidered to  be  by  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men. 

V.  Varieties  of  Christianity 

Christianity  is  a  word  of  wide  significance,  and  it 
is  not  easy  to  attach  to  it  a  definite  meaning.  It  is 
clear  that  as  it  exists  among  us  it  has  many  phases, 
which  may  be  grouped  around  five  or  six  principal 
types. 

1.  First  there  is  evangelical  or  spiritual  Chris- 
tianity, usually  associated  with  the  name  of  Paul, 
which  seeks  to  emphasise  a  forensic  scheme  of  salva- 
tion, and  to  link  itself  on  to  the  Hebraistic  and  Hel- 
lenistic ideas  of  blood  and  vicarious  sacrifice.  Salva- 
tion by  faith  in  the  Atonement  is  the  central  feature 
of  this  scheme,  and  right  conduct  is  a  secondary 
though  natural  sequel  to  right  belief  and  to  trust  in 
what  by  Divine  mercy  has  been  already  fully  accom- 
plished; so  that  no  "performance"  is  necessary  for 
salvation,  but  only  assimilation  of  the  sacrifice  and 
oblation  of  Christ,  once  and  for  ever  accomplished. 

This  variety  of  Christianity  aims  at  attending  to 
the  spiritual  aspect  only,  and  despises  the  material ;  it 
rejects  the  intervention  of  men  and  of  material  aids; 
it  mistrusts  the  use  of  music  and  ornament,  and  it 
endeavours,  sometimes  with  poor  success,  to  condemn 
the  beauty  of  this  present  world  in  comparison  with 
the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed;  even  the  sacraments 
it  is  inclined  to  minimise,  and  to  regard  them  as  me- 
morial services  helpful  to  the  spirit,  rather  than  as 


278  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

agencies  of  real  and  present  efficacy  achieving  some- 
thing otherwise  unattainable.  Definite  historical  fact 
is  of  supreme  importance  to  this  variety  of  belief ;  for 
if  that  be  taken  away  the  basis  of  faith  is  under- 
mined, and  the  system  totters  to  destruction. 

2.  Next  there  is  ecclesiastical  or  dogmatic  Chris- 
tianity, usually  associated  with  the  name  of  Peter, 
which  is  apt  to  emphasise  the  efficacy  of  ceremonies, 
to  regard  material  actions  and  priestly  offices  as  essen- 
tial to  salvation,  and  to  insist  not  only  on  their  sym- 
bolic interpretation,  but  on  some  actual  physical 
transformation,  some  bodily  or  material  efficacy.  It 
builds  less  upon  an  historic  past,  and  more  upon  a 
present  virtue  residing  in  the  Church,  or  accessible  to 
and  utilisable  by  the  proper  officers  and  dispensers 
of  the  means  of  grace.  It  feels  me  importance  of 
times  and  seasons  and  buildings  and  sensuous  repre- 
sentation; it  is  apt  to  concentrate  attention  on  eccles- 
iastical details,  with  a  zest  for  minutiae,  which,  when 
compared  with  the  vital  issues  at  stake,  strikes  an  out- 
sider as  rather  pathetically  humourous;  and  it  some- 
times so  elaborates  the  material  acts  of  worship,  such 
as  the  sacraments,  that  they  tend  to  take  on  the  nature 
of  incantation,  and  are  occasionally  performed  by  the 
priest  alone,  the  congregation  passively  sharing  in 
their  mysterious  and  miraculous  virtue. 

3.  Then  there  is  the  practical  and  energetic  form  of 
Christianity,  usually  associated  with  the  name  of 
James,  which  emphasises  the  virtue  of  good  works 
and  the  importance  of  conduct,  which  regards  belief 
and  doctrine  as  of  secondary  importance,  which  seeks 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  279 

no  cloistered  virtue,  but  throws  itself  vigorously  into 
social  movement,  and  endeavours  both  by  word  and 
deed  to  serve  the  brethren,  and  by  active  charity  to 
ameliorate  the  lot  of  those  whom  it  thinks  of  as 
Christ's  poor. 

4.  Yet  another  variety  is  the  mystical  or  emotional 
form  of  Christianity,  usually  associated  with  the 
name  of  John,  which  seeks  by  rapt  adoration  and 
worship  of  the  Redeemer  and  love  of  all  whom  he  has 
called  his  brethren — "even  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren," — to  rise  to  the  height  of  spiritual  contem- 
plation and  ecstasy :  tending  somewhat  in  this  its  high 
quest  to  isolate  itself  from  the  world,  in  order  to  lose 
itself  in  an  anticipation  of  heaven. 

5.  There  exists  also,  one  must  admit,  some  trace  of 
what  may  be  called  governing  or  hierarchical  Chris- 
tianity, which  glorifies  the  priestly  office,  which  seeks 
after  temporal  power,  which  regards  the  material 
prosperity  of  the  Church  as  of  more  importance  than 
the  welfare  of  states  and  peoples,  which  joins  hands 
with  autocratic  rulers  for  the  oppression  of  the  poor, 
which  blesses  and  sustains  violence,  so  it  be  used 
against  the  Church's  enemies,  which  banishes  and  ex- 
communicates the  saints — even  those  of  its  own  house- 
hold,— and  by  corruption  of  the  best  succeeds  in  abet- 
ting the  cause  of  the  worst.  This  is  the  kind  of  Chris- 
tianity which  attracts  the  special  notice  of  sceptics  and 
scoffers ;  and  most  of  the  diatribes  of  good  men 
against  Christianity  and  the  Christian  ideal  are 
based  upon  some  confused  apprehension  of  this 
ghastly  and  blasphemous  travesty. 


280  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

Whether  it  exists,  here  and  there,  in  this  country  it 
is  not  for  me  to  say,  but  it  certainly  has  some  existence 
in  that  country  which  must  some  day  pass  through 
the  throes  of  an  ultimately  beneficent  revolution — the 
country  whose  Church  has  excommunicated  Tolstoi, 
and  whose  late  Procurator  of  Holy  Synod,  in  fur- 
therance of  what  he  conceived  as  legitimate  ecclesias- 
tical aggrandisement,  exhorted  the  Czar  to  folly  and 
wickedness  in  terms  of  fulsome  and  superstitious 
adulation. 

6.  Lastly  and  ostensibly  the  base  of  all  these  varie- 
ties— but  how  different  from  some  of  them, — there  is 
the  Christianity  particularly  exemplified  and  taught 
by  that  Syrian  Carpenter,  during  his  three  years  of 
public  service,  before  his  execution  as  a  criminal  blas- 
phemer. The  name  of  that  gentle  and  pathetic  figure 
has  been  used  by  the  greater  part  of  the  Western 
world  ever  since,  sometimes  to  sanctify  enterprises 
of  pity  and  tenderness,  sometimes  to  cloak  miser- 
able ambitions,  sometimes  as  a  mere  garment  of 
respectability. 

Whatever  view  we  may  take  of  this  Personality,  we 
can  most  of  us  recognise  it  as  the  greatest  that  has  yet 
existed  on  this  planet;  hence,  if  it  is  through  human 
nature  that  we  can  gradually  grow  to  some  dim  con- 
ception of  the  majesty  of  the  Eternal,  it  is  the  life 
and  teachings  of  that  greatest  Prophet  that  we  shall 
do  well  to  study  diligently  when  we  wish  to  disen- 
tangle and  display  some  of  the  secrets  of  the  spiritual 
universe;  and,  by  the  saints,  his  words  have  always 
been  recognised  as  the  highest  yet  spoken  on  earth 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  281 

concerning  the  relations  between  man  and  man  and 
between  man  and  God.  It  is  certain  that  only  a  few 
of  his  utterances  are  contained  in  our  documentary 
records,  and  it  is  probable  that  some  of  them  have 
been  mutilated  and  spoiled  in  transmission ;  neverthe- 
less it  is  of  interest  to  take  those  recorded  words  and 
see  how  far  they  countenance  the  various  schemes  or 
types  of  Christianity  which  have  been  based  upon 
them.  And  in  particular  I  wish  to  select  those 
which  seem  to  strengthen  the  case  for  either  a  partly 
material  or  a  purely  spiritual  interpretation  of 
Christianity. 

First,  to  clear  away  the  blasphemous  use  of  Christ's 
name  in  association  with  political  or  temporal  or  hier- 
archical Christianity,  the  following  will  suffice: 

"My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world." 

"Woe  unto  you,  generation  of  vipers,  that  stoneth  the  prophets,"  etc. 
"Ye  make  the  commandments  of  God  of  none  effect  by  your  tradi- 
tion." 

There  are  many  emphatic  statements  that  religion 
is  peculiarly  a  spiritual  affair: 

In  favour  of  a  spiritual  form  of  religion 

"God  is   a  spirit,  and  they  that  "The     sabbath    was    made    for 

worship  him     .    .     ."  man." 

"Neither    in    this    mountain    nor  "Meat  ye  know  not  of." 

yet  in  Jerusalem     .     .     ."  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  with- 

"The   words   that   I   speak  unto  in  you." 

you  they  are  spirit     .     .     ."  "Beware   of   the    leaven   of   the 

"That  born  of  flesh  is  flesh,  of  Pharisees  and  Sadducees." 

spirit  is  spirit."  "It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth? 

"Ye  make  clean  the  outside  of  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing." 

the  cup."  "How  is  it  that  ye  do  not  under- 

"Pray  in  secret."  stand?" 

"Mint,  anise,  and  cummin." 


282 


SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 


On  the  other  hand,  there  are  several  texts  which 
appear  to  support  material  accessories: 

In  favour  of  a  ceremonial  and  material  form  of  re- 
ligion 

"This  is  my  body." 


Baptism.  "Suffer  it  to  be  so 
now." 

"This  kind  goeth  not  out  save 
by  prayer  and  fasting."  (Ques- 
tionably genuine.) 

Breaking  of  bread  and  giving 
thanks. 


"Eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man 
and  drink  his  blood." 

"Spit   and   touched  his   tongue." 

Anointing  eyes. 

Wedding  garment  (otherwise  in- 
terpretable). 


But  the  most  numerous  of  the  teachings  have  an 
immediately  practical  bearing: 

In  favour  of  a  practical  form  of  religion 


Grapes  and  thistles. 

Heal  the  broken-hearted,  liberty 
to  captives,  etc. 

"Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it     .     .     ." 

"Go  and  sell  all  that  thou  hast." 

"Worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work." 

"Well  done,  good  and  faithful 
•     •     • 

Do  the  will  to  know  of  the  doc- 
trine. 

"Blessed  is  that  servant  who  is 
found  so  doing." 

Fruitless  tree  cut  down. 

"I  was  an  hungered." 

"Gather   them    that   do   iniquity 


Sower  and  seed. 

Good  Samaritan. 

"Casting  out  devils  in  thy  name." 

"Heareth  and  doeth." 

Tree  known  by  fruit.  "By  their 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

"They  that  have  done  good  to 
the  resurrection  of  life,"  etc. 

"Not  every  one  that  saith  Lord, 
Lord." 

Cup  of  cold  water. 

"He  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father,  the  same  is  my  brother," 
etc. 

"This  do  and  thou  shalt  live." 


In  many  statements  the  human  side  of  the  Messiah 
is  specially  emphasised : 

Emphasising  the  human  side  of  Christ 

"The  Son  can  do  nothing  of  himself." 
"  I  seek  not  my  own  will." 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


283 


"I  am  come  in  my  Father's  name." 

"He  that  speaketh  of  himself  seeketh  his  own  glory." 

"He  hath  given  me  a  commandment  what  I  should  say."     • 

"Son  of  man." 

"Why  callest  thou  me  good?" 

"Ye  both  know  me  and  know  whence  I  am." 

"As  the  Father  gave  me  commandment,  even  so  I  do." 

(Statements  emphasising  the  Divine  side  will  be  referred  to  later.) 

A  few  texts,  so  far  as  they  are  genuine,  can  be  ap- 
pealed to  as  supporting  ecclesiastical  Christianity: 

In  favour  of  an  ecclesiastical  form  of  Christianity 

"Keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

"Sitting  on  twelve  thrones  judging,"  etc. 

"Bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven." 

"If  he  refuses  to  hear  the  church,  let  him  be,"  etc. 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  frequency  of 
expressions  which,  though  full  of  meaning,  can  hardly 
be  taken  literally,  but  were  so  strongly  figurative  that 
even  his  Eastern  associates  were  misled,  is  notorious: 

Figurative  expressions 


"Hateth  father  and  mother." 

"Renounceth  not  all  that  he 
hath." 

"Prophet  cannot  perish  out  of 
Jerusalem." 

"Let  him  sell  his  cloke  and  buy 
a  sword." 

"Not  to  give  peace  but  a 
sword." 

Camel  through  needle's  eye. 

"  Sit  on  twelve  thrones  judging." 

"Son  coming  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven." 

"This  generation  shall  not  pass 
away." 

"I  came  not  to  judge  the  world." 

"This  is  my  body." 


"Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead." 

"Come  to  me  and  drink." 

"Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on 
earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven." 

"Remove  mountains." 

"Some  standing  here  shall  not 
taste  of  death." 

"Keys   of  kingdom   of  heaven." 

"Bread  of  life." 

"Born  again." 

"Destroy  temple." 

"He  that  believeth  is  not 
judged." 

"Eat  my  flesh  and  drink  my 
blood." 

"Everlasting  fire." 


284  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

If  we  endeavour  to  draw  from  all  these  texts  a 
general  deduction  concerning  the  kind  of  religion 
intended  and  taught  by  the  Founder  of  Christianity, 
I  cannot  but  feel  that  the  balance  inclines  strongly  in 
the  double  direction  of  a  spiritual  interpretation  on 
the  theoretical  side,  combined  with  a  thoroughly  prac- 
tical and  simple  outcome  in  daily  life.  These  ele- 
ments, the  spiritual  and  the  practical — the  worship  of 
God  as  a  Spirit,  and  the  service  of  man  as  a  brother — 
are  undoubted  and  emphatic  constituents — the  warp 
and  the  woof,  as  it  were — of  the  pure  Christian  faith, 
but  it  is  difficult  to  maintain  that  they  are  uniquely 
characteristic  of  it;  even  when  taken  together  they 
can  hardly  be  said  to  constitute  a  feature  which 
sharply  distinguishes  it  from  all  other  religious 
creeds.  For  a  still  more  fundamental  substratum  or 
framework — for  a  perception  of  the  really  character- 
istic and  essential  element  in  Christianity — we  must 
look  away  from  the  detailed  words  and  teachings  and 
contemplate  the  Life  as  a  whole. 

VI.  Ecce  Deus 

What,  then,  is  the  essential  element  in  Christianity, 
the  essential  theoretical  element  which  inspires  its 
teachings  on  the  ethical  side?  In  the  inculcation  of 
practical  righteousness  other  noble  religions  must  be 
admitted  to  share,  but  there  must  be  an  element  which 
it  possesses  in  excess  above  others — some  vital  element 
which  has  enabled  it  to  survive  all  the  struggles  for 
existence,  and  to  dominate  the  most  civilised  peoples 
of  the  world. 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  285 

A  religion  is  necessarily  compounded  of  many  es- 
sences, and  is  sure  to  be  mingled  with  foreign  ingred- 
ients, some  worthy,  some  unworthy;  but  these  acces- 
sories cannot  account  for  its  vitality,  for  its  adaptation 
to  various  ages,  and  for  its  acceptance  by  all  condi- 
tions of  men.  A  miraculous  birth  and  resurrection 
were  certainly  not  distinctive  of  Christianity;  they 
have  appeared  in  other  religions  too;  we  must  look 
for  some  feature  specially  characteristic  and  quite 
fundamental. 

I  believe  that  the  most  essential  element  in  Chris- 
tianity is  its  conception  of  a  human  God;  of  a  God, 
in  the  first  place,  not  apart  from  the  universe,  not  out- 
side it  and  distinct  from  it  but  immanent  in  it;  yet 
not  immanent  only,  but  actually  incarnate,  incarnate 
in  it  and  revealed  in  the  Incarnation.1  The  nature  of 
God  is  displayed  in  part  by  everything,  to  those  who 
have  eyes  to  see,  but  is  displayed  most  clearly  and 
fully  by  the  highest  type  of  existence,  the  highest 
experience  to  which  the  process  of  evolution  has  so 
far  opened  our  senses.  By  what  else  indeed  can  it 
conceivably  be  rendered  manifest?  Naturally  the 
conception  of  Godhead  is  still  only  indistinct  and  par- 

i  It  may  appear  hardly  fair  to  treat  the  doctrine  of  Incarnation  as 
an  intensification  of  the  doctrine  of  Immanence;  inasmuch  as  some  may 
consider  them  almost  antithetic.  Spinoza,  for  instance,  held  the  one,  but 
would  assuredly  have  eschewed  the  other.  I  do  not  disagree,  but  point 
out  that  there  is  a  tendency  nowadays  to  strive  rather  towards  a  unifica- 
tion of  the  two  doctrines.  It  may  be  admitted  that  emphasis  on  the 
philosophical  notion  of  Immanence  is  comparatively  recent  on  the  part 
of  theologians;  but  it  can  hardly  ever  have  been  completely  absent  from 
the  Christian  atmosphere,  since  St.  Paul  in  his  Athenian  address  clearly 
lent  it  his  countenance,  and  it  is  implicit  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos. 


286  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

tial,  but  so  far  as  we  are  as  yet  able  to  grasp  it,  we 
must  reach  it  through  recognition  of  the  extent  and 
intricacy  of  the  cosmos,  and  more  particularly 
through  the  highest  type  and  loftiest  spiritual  devel- 
opment of  man  himself. 

This  perception  of  a  human  God,  or  of  a  God  in 
the  form  of  humanity  is  a  perception  which  welds  to- 
gether Christianity  and  Pantheism  and  Paganism  and 
Philosophy.  It  has  been  seized  and  travestied  by 
Comtists,  whose  God  is  rather  limited  to  the  human 
aspect  instead  of  being  only  revealed  through  it.  It 
has  been  preached  by  some  Unitarians,  though  rever- 
ently denied  by  others  and  by  Jews,  who  have  felt 
that  God  could  not  be  incarnate  in  man:  "This  be  far 
from  thee,  Lord."  It  has  been  recognised  and  even 
exaggerated  by  Catholics,  who  have  almost  lost  the 
humanity  in  the  Divinity,  though  they  tend  to  restore 
the  balance  by  practical  worship  of  the  Mother  and 
of  canonical  saints.  But  whatever  its  unconscious 
treatment  by  the  sects  may  have  been,  this  idea — the 
humanity  of  God  or  the  Divinity  of  man — I  conceive 
to  be  the  truth  which  constituted  the  chief  secret  and 
inspiration  of  Jesus:  "I  and  the  Father  are  one." 
"My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work."  "The 
Son  of  Man,"  and  equally  "The  Son  of  God."  "Be- 
fore Abraham  was  I  am."  "I  am  in  the  Father  and 
the  Father  in  me."  And  though  admittedly  "My 
Father  is  greater  than  I,"  yet  "he  that  hath  seen  me 
hath  seen  the  Father";  and  "he  that  believeth  on  me 
hath  everlasting  life." 

The  world  has  been  slow  to  grasp  the  meaning  of 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  287 

all  this.  The  conception  of  Godhead  formed  by  some 
devout  philosophers  and  mystics  has  quite  rightly  been 
so  immeasurably  vast,  though  still  assuredly  utterly 
inadequate  and  necessarily  beneath  reality,  that  the 
notion  of  a  God  revealed  in  human  form — born,  suf- 
fering, tormented,  killed — has  been  utterly  incredible. 
"A  crucified  prophet,  yes;  but  a  crucified  God!  I 
shudder  at  the  blasphemy,"  *  yet  that  apparent  blas- 
phemy is  the  soul  of  Christianity.  It  calls  upon  us  to 
recognise  and  worship  a  crucified,  an  executed,  God. 

The  genuine  humanity  of  Christ  is  now  manifest 
and  clear  enough,  though  that  too  has  been  in  danger 
of  being  lost.  There  have  been  efforts  to  ignore  it, 
and  many  to  confuse  it — attempts  are  still  made  to 
regard  him  as  unique,  rather  than  as  the  first-fruits 
of  humanity,  the  first-born  among  many  brethren. 

Realisation  of  the  genuine  and  straightforward 
humanity  of  Christ  is  obscured  by  a  reverent  misap- 
prehension, akin  in  spirit  to  that  which  originated  the 
Arian  denial  of  his  divinity.  Both  modes  of  thought 
shrank  amazed  from  the  suggestion  that  God  can  be 
really  incarnate  in,  and  manifested  through,  man:  at 
any  rate,  not  in  normal  man;  such  a  thing  only  be- 
comes permissible  and  credible  if  the  Man  is  abnormal 
and  unique,  according  to  the  orthodox  view. 

It  is  orthodox,  therefore,  to  maintain  that  Christ's 
birth  was  miraculous  and  his  death  portentous,  that  he 
continued  in  existence  otherwise  than  as  we  men  con- 
tinue, that  his  very  body  rose  and  ascended  into 

i  Kingsley's  Hypatia. 


288  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

heaven, — whatever  that  collocation  of  words  may 
mean.  But  I  suggest  that  such  an  attempt  at  excep- 
tional glorification  of  his  body  is  a  pious  heresy — a 
heresy  which  misses  the  truth  lying  open  to  our  eyes. 
His  humanity  is  to  be  recognised  as  real  and  ordinary 
and  thorough  and  complete :  not  in  middle  life  alone, 
but  at  birth  and  at  death  and  after  death.  Whatever 
happened  to  him  may  happen  to  any  one  of  us,  pro- 
vided we  attain  the  appropriate  altitude:  an  altitude 
which,  whether  within  our  individual  reach  or  not,  is 
assuredly  within  reach  of  humanity.  That  is  what 
he  urged  again  and  again.  "Be  born  again."  "Be 
ye  perfect."  "Ye  are  the  sons  of  God."  "My  Father 
and  your  Father,  my  God  and  your  God." 

The  smuniqueness  of  the  ordinary  humanity  of 
Christ  is  the  first  and  patent  truth,  masked  only  by 
well-meaning  and  reverent  superstition.  But  the  sec- 
ond truth  is  greater  than  that — without  it  the  first 
would  be  meaningless  and  useless, — if  man  alone, 
what  gain  have  we  ?  The  world  is  full  of  men.  What 
the  world  wants  is  a  God.    Behold  the  God! 

The  Divinity  of  Jesus  is  the  truth  which  now  re- 
quires to  be  re-perceived,  to  be  illumined  afresh  by 
new  knowledge,  to  be  cleansed  and  revivified  by  the 
wholesome  flood  of  scepticism  which  has  poured  over 
it;  it  can  be  freed  now  from  all  trace  of  grovelling 
superstition,  and  can  be  recognised  freely  and  enthus- 
iastically:  the  Divinity  of  Jesus,  and  of  all  other  noble 
and  saintly  souls,  in  so  far  as  they  too  have  been  in- 
flamed by  a  spark  of  Deity — in  so  far  as  they  too  can 
be  recognised  as  manifestations  of  the  Divine.    Nor 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  289 

is  it  even  through  man  alone  that  the  revelation  comes, 
though  through  man  and  the  highest  man  it  comes 
chiefly ;  the  revelation  is  implicit  in  all  the  processes  of 
nature,  and  explicit  too,  so  far  as  human  vision,  in 
the  person  of  its  seers  and  poets  and  men  of  science, 
has  been  as  yet  sufficiently  cleared  and  strengthened 
to  perceive  it. 

For  consider  what  is  involved  in  the  astounding  idea 
of  Evolution  and  Progress  as  applied  to  the  whole 
universe.  Either  it  is  a  fact  or  it  is  a  dream.  If  it 
be  a  fact,  what  an  illuminating  fact  it  is !  God  is  one ; 
the  universe  is  an  aspect  and  a  revelation  of  God. 
The  universe  is  struggling  upward  to  a  perfection  not 
yet  attained.  I  see  in  the  mighty  process  of  evolution 
an  eternal  struggle  towards  more  and  more  self-per- 
ception, and  fuller  and  more  all-embracing  Existence 
— not  only  on  the  part  of  what  is  customarily  spoken 
of  as  Creation — but,  in  so  far  as  Nature  is  an  aspect 
and  revelation  of  God,  and  in  so  far  as  Time  has  any 
ultimate  meaning  or  significance,  we  must  dare  to 
extend  the  thought  of  growth  and  progress  and  de- 
velopment even  up  to  the  height  of  all  that  we  can 
realise  of  the  Supernal  Being.  In  some  parts  of  the 
universe  perhaps  already  the  ideal  conception  has 
been  attained;  and  the  region  of  such  attainment — 
the  full  blaze  of  self-conscious  Deity — is  too  bright 
for  mortal  eyes,  is  utterly  beyond  our  highest 
thoughts;  but  in  part  the  attainment  is  as  yet  very 
imperfect;  in  what  we  know  as  the  material  part, 
which  is  our  present  home,  it  is  nascent,  or  only  just 
beginning;  and  our  own  struggles  and  efforts  and 


290  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

disappointments  and  aspirations — the  felt  groaning 
and  travailing  of  Creation — these  are  evidence  of  the 
effort,  indeed  they  themselves  are  part  of  the  effort, 
towards  fuller  and  completer  and  more  conscious  ex- 
istence.1 On  this  planet  man  is  the  highest  outcome 
of  the  process  so  far,  and  is  therefore  the  highest  rep- 
resentation of  Deity  that  here  exists.  Terribly  im- 
perfect as  yet,  because  so  recently  evolved,  he  is 
nevertheless  a  being  which  has  at  length  attained  to 
consciousness  and  free-will,  a  being  unable  to  be  co- 
erced by  the  whole  force  of  the  universe,  against  his 
will;  a  spark  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  therefore,  never 
more  to  be  quenched.  Open  still  to  awful  horrors,  to 
agonies  of  remorse,  but  to  floods  of  joy  also  he  per- 
sists, and  his  destiny  is  largely  in  his  own  hands;  he 
may  proceed  up  or  down,  he  may  advance  towards  a 
magnificent  ascendancy,  he  may  recede  towards 
depths  of  infamy.  He  is  not  coerced:  he  is  guided 
and  influenced,  but  he  is  free  to  choose.  The  evil  and 
the  good  are  necessary  correlatives ;  freedom  to  choose 
the  one  involves  freedom  to  choose  the  other. 

So  it  must  have  been  elsewhere,  amid  the  depths  of 
cosmic  space,  myriads  of  times  over  in  all  the  vistas 
of  the  past;  and  thus  may  have  arisen  legends  of  the 

1  So,  in  Professor  Gilbert  Murray's  version  of  "The  Trojan  women" 
of  Euripides, — whose  tragedies  represent  a  parting  of  the  ways  between 
an  old  theology  and  a  new, — the  tortured  Queen  Hecuba  turns  from 
the  gods  that  know  but  help  not,  to  the  majesty  of  her  own  immeas- 
urable grief,  and  in  a  moment  of  exalted  vision  perceives  that  even 
through  her  sorrow  life  had  somehow  been  enriched,  and  that  though 
Troy  was  burning  and  the  race  of  Priam  extinct,  they  had  attained 
immortality  in  ways  undreamed  of,  and  would  add  to  the  harmony  of 
the  eternal  music. 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  291 

evolution  of  what  are  popularly  called  angels,  some 
ascendant  in  the  struggle,  others  fallen  by  their  own 
rebellion.  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  these  instinctive 
legends  are  based  on  nothing:  they  are  a  pictorial 
travesty  doubtless,  but  they  are  not  gratuitous  inven- 
tions ;  it  is  doubtful  if  entirely  baseless  or  purely  grat- 
uitous inventions  would  have  any  vitality,  every  living 
idea  must  surely  be  based  upon  something ;  these  cor- 
respond to  something  innate  in  the  ideas  of  humanity, 
because  embedded  in  the  structure  of  the  universe  of 
which  that  humanity  is  a  part. 

A  question  presses  on  the  optimist  for  answer  there- 
fore :  Are  the  rebellious  and  the  sinful  not  also  on  the 
up  grade?  Ultimately  and  in  the  last  resort  will  not 
they  too  put  themselves  in  tune  with  the  harmony  of 
existence?  Who  is  to  say?  Time  is  infinite,  eternity 
is  before  us  as  well  as  behind  us,  and  the  end  is  not 
yet.  There  is  no  "ultimately"  in  the  matter,  for  there 
is  no  end:  there  is  room  for  an  eternity  of  rebellion 
and  degradation  and  misery,  as  well  as  for  one  of  joy 
and  hope  and  love.  We  can  see  that  virtue  and  happi- 
ness must  be  on  the  winning  side,  while  crime  is  a 
fruit  of  arrested  development,  or  reversion  to  an  an- 
cestral type;  we  can  perceive  that  vice  contains  sui- 
cidal elements,  while  every  step  in  an  upward  direction 
increases  the  potential  energy  of  the  moral  universe; 
yet  clearly  there  is  to  be  no  compulsion;  the  door  of 
hope  is  not  closed,  but  it  must  of  free-will  be  entered, 
and  good  and  evil  will  be  intermingled  with  us  for 
many  aeons  yet.  The  law  of  progress  by  struggle  and 
effort  is  not  soon  to  be  abrogated  and  replaced  by  a 


292  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

Nirvana  of  passive  contemplation.  There  is  too  much 
to  do  in  this  husy  universe,  and  all  must  help.  The 
universe  is  not  a  "being"  but  a  "becoming" — an  an- 
cient but  light-bringing  doctrine  when  realised, — it  is 
in  change,  in  development,  in  movement,  upward  and 
downward,  that  activity  consists.  A  stationary  condi- 
tion, or  stagnation,  would  to  us  be  simple  non-exist- 
ence; the  element  of  progression,  of  change,  of  ac- 
tivity, must  be  as  durable  as  the  universe  itself.  Mo- 
notony, in  the  sense  of  absolute  immobility,  is  un- 
thinkable, unreal,  and  cannot  anywhere  exist:  save 
where  things  have  ceased  to  be. 

Such  ideas,  the  ideas  of  development  and  progress, 
extend  even  up  to  God  Himself,  according  to  the 
Christian  conception.  So  we  return  to  that  with  which 
we  started:  The  Christian  idea  of  God  is  not  that  of 
a  being  outside  the  universe,  above  its  struggles  and 
advances,  looking  on  and  taking  no  part  in  the  pro- 
cess, solely  exalted,  beneficent,  self-determined  and 
complete;  no,  it  is  also  that  of  a  God  who  loves,  who 
yearns,  who  suffers,  who  keenly  laments  the  rebellious 
and  misguided  activity  of  the  free  agents  brought 
into  being  by  Himself  as  part  of  Himself,  who  enters 
into  the  storm  and  conflict,  and  is  subject  to  condi- 
tions as  the  Soul  of  it  all ;  conditions  not  artificial  and 
transitory,  but  inherent  in  the  process  of  producing 
free  and  conscious  beings,  and  essential  to  the  full 
self -development  even  of  Deity. 

It  is  a  marvellous  and  bewildering  thought,  but 
whatever  its  value,  and  whether  it  be  an  ultimate  reve- 
lation or  not,  it  is  the  revelation  of  Christ.    Whether 


DIVINE  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY  293 

it  be  considered  blasphemous  or  not — and  in  his  own 
day  it  was  certainly  considered  blasphemous — this  was 
the  idea  he  grasped  during  those  forty  days  of  solitary 
communion,  and  never  subsequently  let  go. 

This  is  the  truth  which  has  been  reverberating  down 
the  ages  ever  since;  it  has  been  the  hidden  inspiration 
of  saint,  apostle,  prophet,  martyr,  and,  in  however 
dim  and  vague  a  form,  has  given  hope  and  consola- 
tion to  the  unlettered  and  poverty-stricken  millions : — 
A  God  that  could  understand,  that  could  suffer,  that 
could  sympathise,  that  had  felt  the  extremity  of 
human  anguish,  the  agony  of  bereavement,  had  sub- 
mitted even  to  the  brutal  hopeless  torture  of  the  inno- 
cent, and  had  become  acquainted  with  the  pangs  of 
death, — this  has  been  the  chief  consolation  of  the 
Christian  religion.  This  is  the  extraordinary  concep- 
tion of  Godhead  to  which  we  have  thus  far  risen. 
"This  is  my  beloved  Son."  The  Christian  God  is  re- 
vealed as  the  incarnate  spirit  of  humanity,  or  rather 
the  incarnate  spirit  of  humanity  is  recognised  as  a  real 
intrinsic  part  of  God.  "The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is 
within  you": — surely  one  of  the  most  inspired  utter- 
ances of  antiquity. 

Infinitely  patient  the  Universe  has  been  while  man 
has  groped  his  way  to  this  truth:  so  simple  and  con- 
soling in  one  of  its  aspects,  so  inconceivable  and  in- 
credible in  another.  Dimly  and  partially  it  has  been 
seen  by  all  the  prophets,  and  doubtless  by  many  of 
the  pagan  saints.  Dimly  and  partially  we  see  it  now; 
but  in  the  life-blood  of  Christianity  this  is  the  most 
vital  element.     It  is  not  likely  to  be  the  attribute  of 


294  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

any  one  religion  alone,  it  may  be  the  essence  of  truth 
in  all  terrestrial  religions  but  it  is  conspicuously  Chris- 
tian. Its  boldest  statement  was  when  a  child  was 
placed  in  the  midst  and  was  regarded  as  a  symbol  of 
the  Deity ;  but  it  was  fore-shadowed  even  in  the  early 
conceptions  of  Olympus,  whose  gods  and  goddesses 
were  affected  with  the  passions  of  men;  it  is  the  root 
fact  underlying  the  superstitions  of  idolatry  and  all 
varieties  of  anthropomorphism.  "Thou  shalt  have 
none  other  gods  but  me":  and  with  dim  eyes  and  dull 
ears  and  misunderstanding  hearts  men  have  sought  to 
obey  the  commandment,  seeking  after  God  if  haply 
they  might  find  Him;  while  all  the  time  their  God 
was  very  nigh  unto  them,  in  their  midst  and  of  their 
fellowship  sympathising  with  their  struggles,  rejoic- 
ing in  their  successes,  and  evoking  even  in  their  own 
poor  nature  some  dim  and  broken  image  of  Himself. 


END 


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